Almost every single article in this paper has been another open borders screed. Do Dems really have nothing to say to the world other than complete open borders? Are they really going to campaign on that issue? Because like so many other American citizens, I tell you right now I will not vote for them. If you are not here legally go home and stay home. The solution to Latino poverty is not bringing it here!
31
KEEPING IT THOUGHTFULLY HONEST: Just when we thought with this Trump administration's new "no tolerance" policy of separating children from their parents at the border, and Donald and Sec. Neilsen, Dept. of Homeland Security, his appointee,is doing her job of lying! After enforcing the brutal and cruel strategy is intended to psychologically traumatize babies, we thought it could not get worst or uglier? Well we have now learned it has! First of all, the asylum seekers have purposely blocked asylum seekers from turning themselves in at our ports of entry. Why? So Donald can arrested the mothers as criminals and separated their children since they are now criminals! And since there was no plan protocol process to address this over population crisis at the border that Donald created! There no judges to conduct legal immigration hearings as required by law on a timely basis. And here is more Evil! Some Mothers have been deported without hearings and forced to leave WITHOUT THEIR CHILDREN! And Sec. Neilsen has no idea that there is No system in place to track where the children have send to after transfer nor to safely return them to their parents! Our tax payer funds has been spend to basically kidnap these separated children!!! THIS IS CRIMINAL! How can these incompetent and mean spirited people live with themselves?
5
I have an idea - if parents don't wish to have their offspring yanked from their loving arms, then don't enter another country illegally. It's really that simple. AND it's coming to light that a LOT of these kids weren't actually the children of the adults that they illegally crossed over with. We HAVE to stop the invasion and hopefully there will be a big sign posted at the border in 10 different languages what is about to happen to you when you come into another country without going through the legal process.
27
The Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents is ghastly and harkens back to when children of slaves in this country we separated and sold away from their parents. Please don't think for a second that there isn't a moral equivalence. This policy is just as amoral as selling a child away into slavery, considering the fact that it's taking place over 150 years after slavery was abolished. Criminal!
9
First of all, I'd like to say that I am not yet a mother or an adult but a 15 year old girl who although is this young realizes how wrong this system is. Separating a child from their parents is one of the worst most unreasonable things that could ever happen to someone. If I was separated from my parents and was put somewhere miles away from my family I would be totally devastated and I can't even begin to imagine the sorrow that this mother is going through because of her son not being with her. Taking a child away from his mother is a type of child abuse and I am totally appalled by it. This can cause trauma in this young child's life that he will forever carry with him. Do to this experience the child might think thoughts such as "I can trust no one" or "This world is unsafe and unfair". Thoughts like these will not lead to a happy and pleasant life but a fearful and overprotective one. I understand that this family was illegally trying to cross the border and that is against the law but there is no possible reason for the child to be separated from his mother. Trump administration's may believe that this a proper way to control illegal immigration but I strongly disagree. The thought that this is happening to many other families has me in utter fear and anger for the families suffering through the loss of their children. Immigrating is not the child's fault and they have no say in it so there is no reason for the child to be punished as well.
10
So now we're kidnapping people's children, isn't that what it is when we send her home and keep her son?
Good job trump and his worshippers, this is how groups like isis happen. I mean, they'll all be dead when this group comes around so they don't care, but we won't. We'll have to deal with their retribution for wrongs committed when we were powerless to stop these atrocities.
If you want to stop undocumented immigration, work on stopping the causes, not punishing the victims of the causes and especially not breaking every human rights code in the book by kidnapping their children.
10
Is there a strategy to deport the migrant parent and bring up the detained migrant children in the united states, and to enroll them in the US army?. May be the US army added a Regiment - Guatemala, Regiment- Mexico, Regiment-Syria --- in the near future?. Will it become a pork barrel politics to placate the vote bank in the next election?.
2
Honestly, I thought the same thing. Or, use them as cheap labor.
3
Where are the children who have been separated from their parent(s)? What corporations are profiting from these incarcerations?
The cruelty, lies, and manipulation occurring at the border crossings are disgusting. This appalling behavior proves the extent of 45's cruelty and willingness to inflict harm on others. The media should not accept the frame that this is up to the Congress to decide. The entire fascistic fiasco is designed to appear strong. It does the opposite. We see how weak and fearful Trump and his syncophants truly are as they pick on children and their parents who cannot defend themselves. If this is what these idiots call strength, it is the responsibility of individual citizens, government employees, elected officials and reporters expose their weakness, their lies, and force them to take responsibility for their ugly actions.
And in the meantime, why now? What does 45 not want the media and the citizenry and the elected officials to see? Ultimately, we must demand the resignations of 45, Pence, Nielsen, Sessions, Kelly, Miller, et al.
2
Message to people who have no intention of complying with United States immigration laws. Do not enter the country without proper documentation.
Can't have sympathy for people who make poor decisions and then whine about the consequences.
I suspect the flow of "undocumented immigrants" is increased by the promise of government freebies available in sanctuary states and cities. Word needs to get out to the countries from which so many illegal immigrants originate: The United States is serious about enforcing its immigration laws. Come to America, but do it legally!
30
the parents should be told before they cross the border that if they cross illegally they will be separated from their children. Give them the choice to return home with their children or proceed and make the choice to be separated.
20
Although it is truly heartbreaking to separate a child from their parent(s), coming here illegally with children is taking a huge risk. If anything, send them back with their children. And this may even serve to deter other would-be defectors from taking such a risk. Cruel as it may sound, we have to take care of our own first. As long as there are American people begging for food, we have not taken care of our own. People without shelter.
21
As we make countless enemies we will be unable to take care of our own. Using children as hostages for political gain is cruel. At this point the employment rate is at a all time high. People begging for food. Really more likely farmers begging for migrant workers to pick the crop. When this news gets out and it will who will want to risk coming to this country. The lure of money will not overcome the risk of coming up against the new bullies that have sprouted up in 500 days. When crops rot in the fields do not ask who is begging for food it will be all of us.
2
This is the most cruel nightmare anyone could perpetrate.
4
This is no longer my country! I don't recognize it anymore. The flag, the anthem, the history and traditions are all gone. I want nothing to do with any of this. I am ashamed to live here!
6
No one is held here against their will.
15
But those immigrant children are!
4
Although not mandatory, there is a law stating that children can be separated if parent, guardian or adult (with children), cross illegally. As previous administrations chose not to enforce that particular law, would be illegal aliens saw opportunity to gain entry unlawfully, game the low standard of proof for asylum and obtain a court date, only never to return for their hearing. It is this cycle the current administration wishes to end "catch and release". As a nation of compassion and moral good, other nations seek opportunity to gain advantage of America's good will. It is a fact that our current policy attracts and encourages illegal crossing, and stoke the liberal sentiments of a sympathetic public. It is this disregard of current immigration law and policy the Trump administration wishes to halt. Previous administration have had the same problem of illegal immigration and parentless minors crossing unlawfully. It is widely known throughout Latin America, if you can cross illegally, current immigration policies will allow you to stay. Therefore, the illegal migrant play book reads as follows: cross illegally, plea for asylum, stay illegally, hide from authorities, bring children to create panic and a moral and ethical crisis; then in a few years, American sentiment will grant amnesty to all illegal entrants. Both Republican and Democrats are using children to drive home a point; however, it is only one party that is doing it lawfully...
6
It is the law. I was only following orders. Has been used to cover endless crimes. It will not work.
Willfully ignoring the banana republics for decades has brought them to a point of near collapse.
The implosion of Syria has brought a flood of people into Europe. So we now have to blame those who run to safety. Or should we blame Russian and the monster of Bagdad who caused this to happen.
The Trump era is only 500 day old. They have found the means to wipe out our good name.
Lawful lies are still lies.
2
Jeff Sessions, Trump, all of them are sickening.
9
.
This type of horror is not inadvertent — it is going precisely as planned. The Trump administration is wielding a form of intentional terror and "collective punishment," a favorite tactic of Hitler's Nazis wherein the victims return and tell their own people of the horror that awaits if you try to go against the regime.
.
8
This one haunts me almost more than anything this horrific administration has done to date, even though many of its actions will have farther-reaching impacts down the road. (God, ALL of its actions will....)
I think of my grandchildren, forcibly separated from their mother for even a day. I think of my children when they were younger, the anguish and lifelong fears it would bring.
Perhaps it's haunting because it encapsulates this administration AND THE GOP so completely -- cruel, inept, exposing a level of disdain for "others" that really does hearken back to times of true evil. And that this is MY America doing this, morphing before my eyes into something I truly don't recognize.
This breaks my heart not just for these children and parents, but with there being so many supporters of Trump and his actions, it breaks my heart for a country and an ideal I realize never truly existed. America was a dream, and now it has become a nightmare of white privilege, harm to others, and world-destroying potential.
10
The US government has kidnapped these children. Given the track record of republicans regarding pedophilia, it's alarming. Given the similarities between republicanism and Nazism, it's alarming. Given that my tax dollars are being used to commit crimes against humanity, it's alarming.
I asked my congressman what he was going to do about this. He had no answer, no statement, no defense. He is another terrified republican without a spine, a brain, or a soul.
10
I can't wait until Kirstjen Nielson is out of government and her loop-hole is forever closed.
She can cite 314-percent increase in whatever all day long; it does not change this administration's choice to make "zero tolerance" change.
"It's very much the Democrats' fault" says Delusional Chief of majorities in BOTH houses of Congress.
These 1,995 and counting separated children are added to the hostage list (Dreamers were first) - until Trump and complicit Republican leaders / officeholders get THEIR ENTIRE Immigration Plan. It's not about some loop-holes.
Secretary Nielson obfuscates with her suggestion that Congress can just close a few loop-holes and then the Trump administration's hands will be untied.
Get real, lady, Trump can UN-ZERO TOLERANCE NOW; and stop accelerating the number of separated children!
Instead, Trump gets on Fox and says he won't sign a moderate bill. Then, he says that he hates separating children and blames Democrats. DISGUSTING COWARD.
Playing political ping-pong with young children sobbing, inconsolable, and traumatized. Nielson refuses to acknowledge the childrens' suffering and simultaneously pretends that it's unavoidable. DISGUSTING LIAR.
11
These foreigners are breaking the law. If US citizens don't like the law, they should get it changed. It is a shame that so many people enter this country illegally and drag their helpless children along in their crime.
If I commit a crime, I will go to jail. My children will be taken from me. We accept that consequence. Should we release all criminals with minor children from jail?
Please, I ask complainers to be part of the solution. Change the law if you want all of these illegals in our country!
19
That is so easy to do. The solution is to find Trump unfit for office. This law was ordered into being the Jeff Sessions just a while ago in San Diego. I watched him do this. His new plantation policy was broadcast on television.
The crime is that we are being run from Moscow. The proof is all that has happened in the last 500 days.
If being a Benedict Arnold is not a crime then there is no point to the law at all.
Tell your Congress people to put on the break drunken fools are running the government into the ground.
2
Before you commit a crime you have been forewarned of the consequences by society from childhood through adulthood.
These people were NOT forewarned ! If they were told they may have believed it to be a rumor. Who can imagine that the United States would commit this form of abuse and cruelty? I don’t recognize this country!
Have border patrol warn parents and children. Give options for a return trip back to their home. That would be the decent thing to do!
1
This is really upsetting me. Is this the country that was built on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?What about those so called family values ? What about your religious beliefs? Most people treat their pets better that this. We rescue pets. You value an unborn child more that a poor immigrant child. Where is the compassion? You talk about the law. Well tell them the law and send them back. Give information on how to come legally to this country. Perhaps they don’t even know the laws in our country. What if these children become ill or die in these detention centers? Are these centers safe? Are they clean? What if there is an outbreak of an infectious disease?Who is changing diapers and comforting them? This evil will come to haunt this country.
7
"The next part unfolded so swiftly that, even now, Ms. Ortiz cannot grasp it."
What she could not grasp is the current policy (I won't say "law") of this country. Frankly, both this policy and the parents who try to enter this country illegally (with their their children at risk ) seem desperately absurd failures. A classic lose-lose unmerry go round. Makes one dizzy and sad. And somehow I feel we are all being taken for a ride.
12
it's nonsense to let people cite a fear of neighborhood violence as something the gain asylum. People in hundreds of neighborhoods on the US are in fear of their neighborhood gangsters. In the US we would say to a citizen, just move to the suburbs or the countryside.
The same advice goes to these illegal immigrant and asylum sellers.
As for those caught as illegal immigrants. If they agree to immediate deportation then they shouldn't be separated. The quandary is, how can we prove the child is related to the adult? If there isn't any documentation, how do we know that the adult isn't an agent instead of a parent? Is there a fast genetic test, something that could give results in a day or so?
22
I would not want you as my neighbor. If a fire burned my house down your door would not open up to take me in.
Try moving around in Guatemala to find a save place.
You of course would want to visit these gangster countries for even one week.
I would bet you would be on the next flight out.
2
If you have never been in Guatemala, go and see how people live. I remember when a boy from Guatemala came into my 4th grade classroom on the East Side of St. Paul, Minnesota. I spoke fluent Spanish and asked if his family needed anything, I called them and then we drove a truck over and brought furniture, beds, clothes, etc. He described as I translated to the social worker the terrifying harrowing journey from Guate up through Mexico and to the US and finally Minnesota, I say LET THESE PEOPLE IN! We live in the same hemisphere, they deserve a future and hope like every human being does.
10
What would be the story if this woman had decided to show up at a legal port of entry instead of sneaking across the border? Would she be separated from her children right now? Are we gong to enforce the laws or not enforce them? Maybe just enforce the one's we like. How would that work?
It's obvious this article glosses over some inconvenient facts in order to generate an emotional response, and forward an agenda. Of course it's Trump's fault this woman got deported, because he decided to enforce a law we don't like. Never mind the fact that he didn't write the law, or that this woman made the conscious decision to ignore it. The point is to forward this fantasy that we have an obligation to open our borders to everyone and anyone who wants to enter the county at any time and at any place they choose. If we don't welcome them with open arms, it's mean and heartless. If, as a country, we want to open our borders and let everyone freely cross it, then get the laws passed to allow it. Report all the facts and put the blame where it belongs.
16
Yes, children are also being taken from parents who arrive at legal ports of entry & formally apply for asylum. There is no moral justification for this action.
9
The ports of entry have been closed by Senator Beauregard Sessions. His policy was just put into practice. This is not a law from 1997 or 1797. It is 2018 April. It was announced by him in San Diego. I watched him as he said in on my television.
So a legal entry is not possible.
Trump has stolen from everyone and he is not in jail. Please do not tell me about enforcement of laws.
Your comment about facts could use some reassessment.
I would bet your computer could help you out with that.
5
Jones Day - please reunite this son with his mother.
1
The separation of parents and children has been going on since mid-April. The sheer shock of such NAZI like brutality occurring on American soil should be replaced by organized public outrage and the will to express that public outrage. Where are the leaders of our public institutions, the leadership of the Democratic party, the churches, the unions, student groups? If ever there was an issue that should be filling the streets with an enraged public this is it. The invasion of Cambodia in 1970 brought a real and visceral response from an angry citizenry in mere weeks. The timid responses so far from our public institutions is a shocking demonstration of how totally corrupted and co opted these institutions have become. Our Fourth of July should be spent in town squares across the country and in the nation's capital listening to speakers delineating the horrific nature of what is happening and why it is so completely at odds with our fundamental principles. I've heard not one call from a leader of national importance asking up to witness to what most of us believe in. Innocent children being separated from their parents in an act of political gamesmanship. Each day that goes by in silence erodes the legitimacy of all our moral leaders.
Somewhere in their studies our leaders must have heard Martin Niemoller's regretful complaint: First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out.....
9
You spoke to my heart. It was thrilling to see the jumble of thoughts I have-- rearranged into a meaningful essay.
I have been thinking about the 4th as well.
Just enjoying the day seems weird now. Wwe need to take advantage of the spirit of that day when we are the most open to reflection We must use it to tell the truth of these 500 days and what we plan to do.
The good news about these ugly events is that they have come into play too early and are too evil This was wildy misplayed. Later, we might have accepted this assault on children,but only if we had been made numb to other lesser evils. There are shelves of books about this. I'll bet there is a "Dictatorship for Dummies"
It's really dumb to step on a 'political third rail' by accident. But it it takes clueless morons to created your own third rail. And then be surprised by the unexpected high voltage electric shock. In real time they are watching their political troops catch fire and burn. That there is a talent. Akin to going Chapter 13 on a casino. Of course only DJT could manage to created as mess as toxic as this. Woman voters were not pleased with him. If pollsters go out now they best take their smelling salts with them.
What is the point of waiting for Mueller to come waltzing in with his report months, or years from now when we have enough. A clueless President who is such a heartless moran that he can't even grasp why we are upset over kidnapping children for political gain.
2
Is it any wonder that Stephen Miller is Adolf Eichmann's literal Doppelgänger?
This is just like the Nazis.
3
It's one thing to try to put on the same evil play. But it quite another to use the same tried old actors.
Repeating history was not meant to be taken literally.
I have come to believe that running away is no longer possible what country would take Americans in ?
2
I don't know if others have talked about these examples: the situation with migrants in Europe is catastrophic as well; I have seen segments on "DW NEWS BERLIN" where teens were interviewed in Berlin who had been separated from their parents & other family members; these children had been forced in sex rings; were raped; sold, etc. God knows where their families were! Then there were the Jewish children who were put on trains headed for England during WWII as parents stood by crumpled & defeated knowing that deportation [& likely extermination] were facing them. They sent their children away with the certainty & hope that these youngsters would be given a chance at life: to play & grow up without being in danger of losing their lives; I think most of these European Jews had no idea where there children would end up, except they were "assured" that the boys & girls would end up with English families. Of course, many of these Jewish adults never survived the war to go find their children afterwards. Counsins of mine [2 bros & 1 sister] were hidden in plain sight in Antwerp with Catholic family friends; they all survived the Nazis but the childrens' parents were deported to Auschlitz where they were gassed. Those are just two examples. Japanese-American families were rounded up during the war & put in camps in the Western .S. Americans in the U.S. during the war; I don't know if those families were able to reunite.
3
My dentist is a third generation Japanese American. He remembers being treated as 'the other' as a child. They seem to be doing well now as a family. But not all of them are free of the past. His aunt has been hiding in her bedroom since Trump got elected.
Those who have this knowledge in their bones and blood need to be listened to. They function in the same way as a canary in a coal mine.
2
What’s happening at ports of entry? Are families who seek asylum at official entry points also being detained and separated? Please clarify!!!
1
Yes, those parents are also being separated from their children.
4
These policies have nothing at all to do with border security. They have everything to do with ginning up Trump's xenophobic appeal for the 2018 midterm elections. This is an administration running on the noxious fumes of racism.
The massive Mexican Migration Project - http://mmp.opr.princeton.edu/ - proves that 40 years of stepped up immigration law enforcement have only produced... increased levels of permanent illegal immigration from south of the border.
Workers used to go back and forth. With increased enforcement that option has been taken off the table and people that cross now tend to stay largely because of the increased transit difficulties. Estimates are that this has increased the population of illegals permanently living in the US by at least a third (over what it would have otherwise been).
Not only that - because they can't return to Mexico to visit their families as they did in years past these immigrants have increasingly tended to bring spouses to the US and have children who are born in the United States.
What this proves is that the enforcement of stupid and prejudicial laws produces the opposite of the originally intended results.
It's obviously the case that the American economy has absorbed these immigrants in gainful employment - that's why they came here in the first place.
These are people that do the hard labor that American citizens spurn. They are also, on average, more law abiding.
I am thoroughly disgusted by the self-serving lies.
8
I live in LA. If all the labors stayed home one day this city would go into a tailspin.
The construction that is on every corner would stop. The hotels would have unmade beds. No one would be in the kitchen at most restaurants.
In the great valley just north of us, crops would rot in the fields. If that occured most of America would have to find a plan ' b' for their basic fruits and vegetables.
Watching The 3 Stooges ruin a fancy automobile is only fun to watch if you are not the car's owner.
1
Separating children from their parents is inhumane, but there is a solution: send them back with their parents. What is so difficult about that? The mother was sent back, why not annul the law that says children must be seized and taken care of by our government. It's insane. I do feel sorry for the children and for their parents, but am not for open borders and the abuse of the law. More money is spent on housing and feeding these kids than would be spent on simply sending them back with their parents.
9
By the way, nothing in the Republican's immigration "reform" would keep people from showing up at the border with their children, so I wouldn't count on them to stop doing this even if they get everything they want.
1
If I were Trump, I'd end this policy of separating mothers from their children in exchange for a more stringent immigration program for men who come alone or bring their wives/girlfriends (unless they come alone with their minor child).
There is law that needs to be enforced and there are certainly "bad hombres" here and there within the migrant flow but I've never heard of an appreciable risk coming from moms and kids.
Seems like a no-brainer to me.
2
I'd end the policy with two provisos:
1) Ironclad E*Verify system for ALL employers with mandatory jail time for those who break the law
2) A wall
You game?
3
My husband and I have been starting to talk seriously about having children, but after seeing what’s going on right now, I can’t imagine being a parent and being assaulted by these images and articles every day. It already makes me so anxious and extremely sad about the possibility of having my own children grow up in a country where it’s okay for their peers to be treated like this... all because they’re coming to (what should be) the greatest country on earth for a situation better than where they left. My husband and I are children of immigrants who came here the “right way” — because they had the resources to do so and (maybe more importantly to this administration) because they didn’t come from a continent that this administration wants to build a wall against. Knowing my own parents, if they were in the same situation these migrant parents were in, in their country of origin, they would’ve also fought hard to get to the US, by hook or by crook. For those who can’t empathize with this desire to provide a better life for your family, I pity you. I hope you and yours are never forced into a similar situation.
9
"Permanently separated?"
Adolf Eichmann would have been proud.
5
The American Pediatric Association has defined this Trump policy as child abuse. The Human Rights Commission has deemed it a unconscionable. How long until the rest of the world begins to slap sanctions on the US for human rights abuse? I can only hope and pray all good people who have not yet abandoned their humanity will vote in November.
7
my phrase that pays
Kidnapping Children
for
Political Hostages.
Absolutely right; unite the families and deport all of them together. And no, they won't like it. We should be terribly concerned about the opinions of people who are invading our country.
13
Nor should we be surprised if other countries decide that they do not want us to visit them.
Kidnapping Children
for
Political Hostages.
never a good move
1
This policy is immoral on the face of it. Trump could stop this in a heartbeat, and he refuses to do so. He falsely blames the Democrats; but it's a moot point, since he has it within his authority to put an end to it. Trump wants it to be as it is; otherwise he would stop it. Period.
Furthermore, it is blasphemous for Jeff Sessions to justify this policy by quoting the Apostle Paul out of context. No follower of Jesus Christ would ever countenance children being ripped from the arms of loving parents. Never. Ever.
This is not America. This simply is not who we are.
7
But sadly it is who Sessions is. And who some of us were at one time.
Beaugurad must of heard this particular passage while he was still in knee pants. It was used by slaveholders to justify what they were all about. He most likely has it committed to memory.
Could "Kidnapping Children so they can be used as Political Hostages." be a chapter in a book titled
"Dictatorship for Dummies" a beginners guide.
And could a certain someone,you know who I mean,
be reading this handbook,in between bouts of Faux News.
Too bad student Trump is jumping around from chapter to chapter and not getting the knack of the overall process. It messes up the beauty of fascism when you do that.
The U.S. is turning into a barbarian society bereft of humanity.
2
I visited the Museum of African American History in DC today. In the section dealing with slavery there is a passage describing the fate awaiting new African arrivals. ‘Husbands were separated from wives, children from parents....infants from mothers.’
A couple of hundred years later and look how we have evolved.......we don’t auction them off.
It amazes me how otherwise rational individuals cannot see how horrific their actions are.
16
No longer for slavery that would be wrong, and most likely illegal.
But kidnapping children to be used as political hostages.
That sounds more like medieval times.
When your name is Jefferson Beaugard Session you have had years of practice doing just that kind of casual debauchery.
1
The proponents of this heinous practice say we do this to the children of criminals in this country. Those children are NEVER placed in cages and are placed with foster families or actual family as soon as possible. Communist orphanages have been known to treat abandoned children as compassionless as what is happening in our country today. Both older children and infants are left to their own devices to comfort themselves. The only difference is they aren't being forcefully ripped from the arms and breasts of family that want them. How can people ordering and supporting these horrible life changing acts look at themselves in a mirror every day without seeing a monster. No, we can't take in every suffering family. But we MUST treat them humanely and with compassion and understanding as they are not animals. Along with that we need to help find solutions in their home countries to stop the crime and poverty so they will not need to take the terrible risks they do to try to save their children. A new generation of terrorists is being created. We are not NAZIS. We are Americans, formerly one of the most compassionate and caring peoples in the world. Stand up, speak up and vote them out so this won't happen again. Don't think we couldn't be in the same boat someday. Who will be willing to help our families and children then?
8
"I can't go on without my son..."
Shouldn't she have thought about that BEFORE taking her child on a long, dangerous journey with the admitted intent of breaking U.S. laws?
Of course, the government needs to get everyone on the same page and make sure that families are not separated, but rather deported together.
Let’s hope that Ms. Enriquez will soon be reunited with her son back in Guatemala. Oh, and with her boyfriend Edgar as well.
33
She was running from violence ! You have no heart.
2
Curiouser:
Another billion or more people also suffer from violence in their home countries. Should we accept all of them?
I am married to an immigrant, as are both of my children. I am working closely with two other young prospective immigrants (legal) from developing countries, one of whom we consider to be an adopted son. I don't think that any of them would consider me to be heartless.
(Though it is true that some people have no heart, it also true that others have no brain.)
12
Lost in all the discussion about US immigrant policy is the role that American businesses and employers play in this so-called "crisis".
Immigrants looking for a better life come here because they can get work with employers who are only too happy to break US law and hire them illegally. Further, many of these employers are only too happy to exploit these workers by using their illegal status to pay low wages in unsafe work environments where they are subject to abuse and sexual exploitation. What about fining and jailing those people?
Yes, some people may laugh at me and say it's that unrealistic. But these are the same people who want to throw the book at immigrants.
You can't have it both ways. Or to put it another way, "It's supply and demand, dummy!" You take away the demand for cheap, exploitable labor, then people will stop risking their lives to come here.
Think about this: Trump uses foreign workers in his resorts, including Mar-A-Lago. Why isn't he hiring American Citizens? There are plenty of qualified American waiters, maids, etc. in Florida.
And that's the HONEST TRUTH.
10
Honest and truth are unknown concepts in the current White House administration and the Republican Party. They just don’t care. They are the real criminals. Hoarding our taxes for themselves and entitlement-addicted billionaires.
2
Anyone entering the US illegally is detained. As per the agreement signed between the courts and a previous administration, children can't be detained. So the choice is to catch and release the whole family and expect them to come to court when their case is heard. But no one shows up. And then people march on the street wanting amnesty. So those saying separating children from detained parents is horrible, should suggest what they wish to be done. Open borders? Or put up a wall, apply for an asylum from outside the US. Or something else?
22
Never mind what else should be done. Just don't do this.
5
Why haven't child welfare authorities acted to rescue these children and return them to their parents?
1
Where are all the religious people supposedly concerned about the welfare of children?
8
And while we are looking for heros, where is that political party who preached 'family values' to the rest of us for forty years.
Never mind, they are the ones in charge of all of this.
1
This makes absolutely no sense. If you are going to deport the parents, why are we keeping the children? Are the Republicans looking to have a pool of children they can sell for adoption? What on earth is their intent? Families should not be separated period. Trying to use this policy as a deterrence is not working because many of these families are in transit and not up to date on the latest news. They arrive her with no idea that the Gestapo is going to tear their families apart. Draconian!
9
This demonic policy comes from the same political party who preached "family values" to the rest of us for forty years.
We have to find our heroes in other places since they are the ones who are kidnapping children.
1
A new low for an already-disgraceful administration
3
I absolutely fail to understand why anyone is surprised at President Trump's very successful modus operandi. What else would one expect from a brilliant student, who graduated summa cum laude from The Joseph Goebbels College of Marketing and magma cum laude from The Joseph Stalin Institute of Loyalty for his dissertation, "The Case of Leon Trotsky: Using Apprentices When 'Lock Him Up' Aint Enough."
3
First he's a NAZI and then a Communist? Perhaps you have a point. After all, he does seem to define bi polar. Frankly i think it's Attention Deficit Disorder. He simply cannot get enough attention.
3
Nazi Germany will now have competition as one of the vilest regimes in history. That that regime is us is beyond hard to process.
2
Really ?
Attacking those of us who wish to enforce our immigration laws and deport illegal aliens are “”Nazis” ?
Just reading these attacks on common sense law enforcement and immigration laws caused me to donate again to the RNC.
8
I have NO problem equating this with Nazi Germany, especially given the flags that Trump’s supporters march behind. I have no problem with enforcing immigration laws either. But this is recreational sadism pure and simple. It is racist and vile and we are (or were) better than this,
1
After all kidnapping children for political hostages was always a winning hand.
Better dig deeper into your pocket,fan of RNC.
Because Beto O'Rourke has in just the past weekend surged past Ted Cruz in Texas. Yes the flip of a Senate seat in yet another deep red state.
If you are a committed republican perhaps you might consider a second mortgage on you house.
You write that one option for parents separated and deported from their children is to confer custody and responsibility to a family member still living in the US. I believe this statement is a bit misleading, as in reality, parents can also shift responsibility to someone that had no previous relation to the child.
4
This has nothing to do with actually stopping illegal immigration. It has everything to do with obtaining funding for the border wall. The wall was Trump's most popular promise. It never failed to get applause and alot of hooting and hollering from his base. The wall is still not being built and Trump is desperate. He's desperate to get the Democrats to sign off on an immigration bill that includes funding the border wall. If it takes large scale child abuse to do that, then so be it. Kind of a "the end justifies the means," thing. He and his syncophants believe that the construction of a border wall will make the deplorables forget about this child-parent separation atrocity. Sadly, they're probably right.
4
We kind of animals are running this country? Seperating children from parents as a deterent for illegally crossing a border because those parent want to give their children a chance for a better life is immoral. Our country became great because of its immigrants. It is pure racism on behalf of our questionable elected President that is closing our borders, while the United States should do all it can to eliminate the reasons why these people flee the countries they are in. It all goes back to the Nixon/Reagan drug wars and the corruption it brought forth. Now those problems come full circle.
3
Why doesn't she have her boyfriend immediately go pick up the child? The system is designed for that. If any one of us committed a crime and were jailed for it, we would also be separated from our children.
13
think that through. it seems the boyfriend is probably not here legally, either. so how well do you think that would work? also, if you're detained for committing an actual crime (not a misdemeanor - crossing the border is a misdemeanor- or legally seeking asylum) your child isn't placed in a warehouse full of kids - there are arrangements made with family or in foster care.they're traceable. this is inhumane and disgusting. don't pretend that this is the same way as Americans in this country are treated.
4
If an American citizen were detained for committing a crime--either a misdemeanor or a felony--and all other possible guardians didn't want to help (because they had also committed this crime and were afraid of repercussions), a child could end up in the hands of the state and be placed in a foster home--often a group home. Not terribly different from what is happening here on a temporary basis. Horrible for the children, yet the fault of the behavior of the parents and guardians.
1
Just stop it with the analogy that Americans lose their children when arrested. Children are not removed from families when a parent breaks a law. They are not taken away by law enforcement, they are not taken to another state, they are not thrown into a facility, they are not kept from communicating with the rest of their family. Even people who abuse their kids rarely have them removed. This policy at the border is especially designed to be cruel in order to leverage mother's and children's tears for a border wall.
5
It is not OK to remove a child from a parent and send the parent away on a plane without the child. If we separate a parent and a minor, we need to reunite them or give them the avenue to do so.
Whether people are criminals or illegal or not, we become responsible for the child by taking the parent in our custody and the child out of their custody into ours. Who is paying to house, feed, cloth and care for those children? Who is profiting ?
It is deeply troubling how my fellow humans think it's ok to take another human beings child away without insuring the safety, well being and return of the child. Call them migrant or alien or illegal if that makes you feel better, right? They are human beings. The people lying about taking a person's child away to bathe when they are in fact snatching them are dangerously close to telling the people to disrobe and follow along to the bath.
Deeply disturbing.
7
We are hard wired for attachment. We come into the world with these huge, plastic brains that have infinite potential to dream and create and invent and explore and love. But our brains are unfinished at birth and continue to develop until we are about 25. Being in the arms of a loving and secure attachment figure literally prunes and shapes our neural circuitry as we develop. Children who are ripped from the arms of their parents at the border and are then alone in their terror and abandonment for days or weeks on end, with no one to hold and console them, are not just having a bad experience. It is trauma, torture, and yes, if it goes on long enough, it causes brain damage. Many of these children will have enough maturity and resilience to recover if they are repatriated. But some will not. We are inflicting suffering on all of them, and permanent injury on many of them. This is Trump. This is my government, torturing children and I feel sickened and helpless.
5
People who come to this country are desperate and probably don't speak the language well enough to understand the law--heck, I don't understand the immigration laws and I am a college graduate. In addition, how can we hold immigrants responsible for knowing the law when there are three agencies that can't decide who does what and has authority. Absurdity. It's embarrassing and more than that, inhumane. It's as if we have two Americas right now and people are picking sides. What happened to all for one and one for all?
7
I have not been able to stop thinking of these children and their families for weeks now (ever since Chris Hayes first reported on it 4-6 weeks ago on MSNBC). Have any of the children died while incarcerated? Who are these workers, hired by the prison industry who is getting paid millions to create these concentration camps? Are they abusing the children? They are HELPLESS in every way!! It's unbelievable. Why are we not marching in the streets? Are we Nazi Germany now in the United States? Are we going to allow this to continue??
6
To all of those who claim to be Christian and claim that tearing “illegals” away from their children is necessary and fair, maybe you haven’t read the Bible enough to recall the story of the Good Samaritan? The ending of that parable (would it have even been a parable?) would have turned out much differently had the Samaritan passed by on the other side of the road, rather than stopping to help. You may also want to pick up the New Testament and read about Jesus saying we should love everyone: Not just those who are fortunate enough to be born in the United States. Not just those with an ivory complexion. Not just those who share our political views. Not just those who certify that “laws are laws”. We are to love everyone. I am not a religious person, but I find the treatment and separation of these families sickening and heartbreaking. Since Trump thinks he’s an Evangelical Christian now, he should dig deep within his Christian soul and stop blaming Obama and Democrats for everything that’s going wrong during his presidency. He could also put on his listening ears to the half of the population who aren’t Trumpsters, but who are citizens of this broken nation, and listen to what we are saying. “The way you are treating these families is wrong and egregious. You have the power to change it and you are choosing not to.”
8
I would add right at the end of your comment.
We have the power to replace you, Mr President, and we will choose to use it.
Isn't this just plain kidnapping? Isn't that a serious felony in America?
7
So many posters blame Elsa for breaking the law. Did it ever dawn on folks that maybe she doesn't know what the law is? Please - most Americans don't even know what the laws on asylum are. Armed with only the scant details covered in the article, they self-righteously proclaim her "guilt" This country sickens me with it's rampant ignorance and racism.
10
Jeff Sessions is responsible for a crime against humanity and should be held accountable.
18
Sounds like the blame here is not on Trump, but on the efficiency (or lack thereof) of the government departments in charge of this nonsense. Find this woman's child and fly him, with an adult escort, to Guatemala. Next, stop putting anyone in detention, just turn them around. Sorry, but this is out of control and it's not the US that is at fault - it's their home countries and the mixed messages they receive (encouragement from their own government and crooks that steal them across the borders).
8
Intolerable, brutal, fascist, inhuman.
Trump treats children the same way he treats health care, the environment, education, honesty, and reasonable governing. This is a man for whom "making America Great Again" is a slogan to mouth while he destroys what actually does make this country great.
8
If only all bleeding heart Liberals (count me in) would STOP lobbying for a course correction, Democrats could turn the midterms around in both houses.
This issue is powerful, like abortion is to Republicans
This issue is passionate, like tax cuts to the rich Republicans
This issue is INTERNATIONAL and a violation of norms and laws, thereby solidifying the Resistance worldwide
So, the President and his sycophant AG want to use pain and sacrifice to build a Wall? How about we build a new government by and for the people and force the dictator wannabe to come to grips with the press as friend of the people and all that stands between US and Fascism?
5
So right on target.
It takes clueless morans to create a new "third rail" of US politics which they then touch and are shocked and burnt.
Everyone has felt the trauma of this policy except those who came up with it.
Mueller plus Cohen plus Manafort plus Stormy may not have the power this gut rencher has.
Democrats looking for a message look no farther.
STOP CHILD ABUSE
Just when you thought it couldn't get worse....
3
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Trump, Administration officials, members of Congress and all Trump supporters who feel so threatened by the impending changes in our world:
Is this what it means to be American now? Just a gentle reminder - these are human beings and before you start blathering about "the rule of law", please remember the sage advice - to walk a mile in the other's shoes before you start filling abandoned warehouses with fellow humans. There but for the grace of God...
What a disgrace.
9
Others have written much more eloquently than I can, but I must say that these tactics are reminiscent of Nazi Germany and will surely come back to haunt us. If we quote the Bible, let's remember, from the Old Testament, "The measure you give is the measure you will receive," and from the New Testament, Jesus' giving the two great commandments: "Love God with all your heart and soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself." Buddhists would remind us that we are all interconnected, and that what affects one of us affects us all. May those in power in Congress soon come to their senses and realize it would be better to lose their positions and return home to their former jobs than to uphold a cruel, immoral, un-American policy. Remember the quotation on the Statue of Liberty!!
9
Beautifully expressed. This story is the 2018 remake of Sophie's Choice. This is unspeakably cruel to these innocent children and guaranteed to induce PTSD and cause FAR greater societal issues such the appeal of gangs to kids who lack domestic stability.
1
Somewhere Oskar Schindler is weeping.
5
Yes... this is the Trump administration's disgusting remake of Sophie's Choice.
2
Well Stanley this is another fine mess you have gotten us into. What part of the Bible will Sessions now quote?
3
I am so tired of 45 and those that constitute the Republican Party. The goose stepping Congress has managed to destroy in one year everything that made this country the shining light of Democracy. My husband and I of 37 years who were raised Catholic do not even go to Church anymore. The values that we learned growing up have long since disappeared. Evangelical Charity does not begin at home it no longer exists. There will be a “Special Place In Hell” for 45 and his administration. The GOP Congress can join them!
12
How can any just person tolerate the administration using young children as bargaining chips to get legislation passed? I am sickened as I look at my extended family and think about if it were my grandchildren and great nieces and nephews torn away from their parents. This is just plain WRONG.
14
Can you imagine the PTSD that these children will suffer from and the consequences for schools and society? I speak from 30 years of working with immigrant and refugee populations.
1
Why does the media insist on evading the blunt truth? It is not "the Trump administration's attempt to control illegal immigration", it is "pursuant to the order of President Donald Trump, immigrant parents are being deported after their babies and children have first been seized and warehoused. Donald Trump -"Making America Proud".
6
Like others, I can’t stop thinking about this, and I feel so helpless and angry. The most damage is to the children. They will not understand why they are being torn from their families. They are unable to process this experience. It’s child abuse, plain and simple. For me, the most disgusting so far is Sessions quoting the Bible, and Sanders, backing him up. Self-righteous justification for harming innocent children.
12
When a legal US resident is arrested for committing a crime and is taken to jail, he or she is of course separated from his children. At that point, social services may step in and take temporary custody of the child( where necessary) until another arrangement can be made. So, is it the Left's position that illegal aliens, who have committed a crime by entering the US, should have better rights and treatment than legal US residents? Where is the hue and cry for them?
15
If they have come seeking asylum tell me where is the crime?
4
A proven recipe for PTSD and all the wonderful consequences we'll see in schools and our communities. A gang sounds very safe and appealing when you're an adolescent wirh no parent and limited English.
2
We can't just read this and lament. We must, as citizens of a great nation, as religious and moral people, and as human beings, contact congress today to demand they put an end to these barbaric practices this very month.
If we do less than we can to fix this right away, we are complicit in fascism.
9
President Trump's "economic adviser" Peter Navarro daclared that there is a "special place in hell" for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. If there is really a special place in hell for any human being on Earth, it is for Donald Trump, with members' eternal visiting privileges for Jefferson Sessions, Stephen Miller, Bashar al-Assad, Vladimir Putin, Roderigo Duterte and, yes, Navarro, all of whom should be condemned for eternity to a room with murderers, rapists, journalists from the "fake news," Spanish speakers, Mitt Romney and war heroes like himself who “didn’t get caught.”
9
So this woman endangered her 8 year old son by making him travel a long distance across Mexico, forced him to raft across the Rio Grande river and entered them he US illegally - risking his life, so she could come live with her boyfriend - and the US is to blame for separating them?
Social Services would take children from parents in the US for such reckless disregard for the safety of their children.
Relocating somewhere in southern Mexico, closer to home would have been a much safer choice for her child - assuming that was even a consideration for this woman’s decisions.
27
D Smith do you have all the facts as to why this mother took these risks? I am curious to know when you interviewed her and your fluency in Spanish. Did the term "boyfriend" bother you and you assumed he was the father of her child? What if this mother was raped as a teenager by someone else and the boyfriend is actually working here very hard every day? Did you know that 0% of undocumented immigrants can collect "welfare"?
3
Alimarq- of course I didn’t interview this woman and I assume you didn’t either. Not sure what any of your questions have to do with the fact that this woman endangered the life of her 8 year old son to come to the US when she could have stayed somewhere closer to home in Mexico.
We have accepted the fact that Donald Trump has neither morals nor a heart, but what about the people who carry out his inhumane (and possibly illegal) directives? Surely, some of them should be strong enough to say "no" and to stand up to this would-be dictator. I'm sure they would have a high rate of national and international support should they decide a mutiny is in order.
11
The premise Trump and his administration are using to snatch these children is that it is because the parents are being criminally prosecuted. If so, then we must presume the intent of the prosecution is to incarcerate parents entering our country illegally. So, what happens to the children then?
Keeping in mind here that it is highly probable that a large number of these children may only have one parent, they may be far too young to know who their parent is and where they come from, etc. So how are we supposed to return these children, moreover, return them in such a way that we are not setting the stage for any of these children to be murdered, raped, molested, exploited, abused, or used for slave labor.
Will these children be kept in the U.S., after the parent is deported or incarcerated or will the children suddenly disappear one day with our government claiming no knowledge of what happened? Will these children be forcibly placed in a state or federal institution, with foster families, or end up with some sexual predator? And do you really think that Trump or anyone in his administration is going to take an ounce of responsibility for any of these children being harmed in anyway?
Although there is no law requiring us to kidnap these children, even if there was, Trump could very well put an immediate end to what is being done to these children. But he refuses to because it's easier and politically profitable among his base, to blame Democrats for his actions.
8
For once, I'd like to see these people march up their own Governments steps to solve their problems, instead of ours.
20
Terrific comment.
I’m tired of being taxed to death to solve everyone else’s problems - none of which I created.
7
These activities by the Trump government are a terrible disgrace to our country. The United Nations and other international agencies need to investigate. The perpetrators should be tried in courts. This is not who Americans are...not even close.
4
Just when you think Trump and his political party hit bottom.
I use to be a proud American and I will again.
FDT
946 days to go till he's gone.
4
America is Great, for sure. Our achievements are many and awe inspiring. And yet, if you know your history, and especially if you are a person of color, you surely know better than most America's history of oppression and genocide of the Native peoples, the rape, breeding, ripping asunder of families and culture of African slaves, the internment of Japanese-Americans and the unlawful seizure of their lands, properties and monies. This too is America, land of the not-free.
While America certainly has been great, its wrongs against humanity have also been great, perpetrated within its own shores. And it continues today in the inhumane separation of families in the name of "law".
Let us reflect that all of the atrocities mentioned above were, if not actual written law, considered lawful by those that perpetrated it.
People are shocked that this is happening, but it has all happened before. This is the true America. Its ugly face of oppression that is woven through our history and laws that has arisen yet again. We must all look upon the truth of what this country is, so we can evolve and do better.
10
Kidnapping, except that the feds are doing it so that's ok? This is way out of hand. Let these children go!
7
REALITY: separation is up to illegal entrants
9
"Critics say that Ms. Ortiz’s saga is the latest indication that the administration’s new enforcement strategy was rolled out without adequate planning." As if better planning would make it all right? These separations of children from their parents -- not to mention from each other, as it's clear that siblings are often not kept together in these internment camps -- are a horror not justified by any U.S. law. They blithely flout international law, as well as any possible sense of justice or morality held by any human individual or group. Poor planning is really not the issue here. Please try to reflect reality, New York Times writers and editors.
6
This is simply incomprehensible and is a crime at every level. They are traumatizing children and ripping apart families. This is simply the most disgusting abuse of the world’s most vulnerable. Great nation? I don’t think so. The US has become a pariah in the world thanks to one man and a political party that has become a cult.
7
Jesus said "Suffer the little children to come unto me." Jeff Sessions said "Let the little children who come unto me suffer."
6
Here's a solution to our illegal hispanic immigration:(because make no mistake, if these people were white they would be treated differently)
Relinquish American corporations in these countries and give it back to their people. Let them own their own land and prosper with their country's export - fruits. Americans get bananas for an average of 49 cents a bundle. You know why? We exploit the Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvadoran workers. We pay them 5 cents a day for labor Americans think we're too good for. And when any of these nations elect a government that disagrees on whether or not America should own these lands and their ONLY EXPORT, we overthrow the government. For instance, on June 28, 2009, the democratically elected government of Honduras was overthrown with the help of Hillary Clinton and a dispute over the United Fruit Corporation exploiting the Honduran people.
So my solution is that we take our oppressive thumb off of their economies and they'd prosper and be happy where they are and we can all stop listening to the racist in the room talk about how they're using their children for pity & asylum (seriously Dad, I've had enough). I'd pay more for bananas if I knew it was benefitting these people.
7
It is Trump and the people who voted for him that are responsible for this reprehensible policy. The world will not forget and long remember this infamy. American democratic, humanitarian, civic and Christian values are going down the toilet in favor of Trumpism. We are no longer a city on a hill, we are a shameful, racist place that tears babies from the arms of their mothers and calls that justice.; we are a place where Heather Heyer (Charlottesville) is killed by neo-Nazis and Gary Cohn and Steve Mnuchin, both Jewish, stand there while Trump says that there were "good people on both sides." Imagine the children being raised in pro-Trump homes and listening to this garbage, they are victims too.
8
What bothers me about some of the Trump supporters commenting here is that they have no empathy at all. Yes, there are legal ways to come here. Yes, laws need to be obeyed. Yes, these people have a right to asylum if indeed that’s their case. What bothers me the most is and what you are not getting about this article is that the Mother did not want to leave her son behind, she wanted to take him home. She’s not getting information. Why can’t mothers and children be detained together so there’s less trauma on the Mothers and children. Why? Babies and toddlers screaming and crying on cement floors in cages? What the hell is wrong with our nation? All I know is Hate runs deep in our country. Process the individuals and let them go home.
5
One of the worst lowest moments in the US, now. Parents are criticized if they do not protect their children or in this case, if they do so by trying to remove them from harm in Central America. Risking their lives from The Beast or from thirst does not seem a careless decision. Complex problem but surely our highly educated and powerful "leaders" can do better.
6
This is indeed "child snatching". What more can we do to expose and shame the people responsible for this reprehensible act? I am feeling desperate and powerless....
8
You & me both, sister. All we can do is talk about it to everyone and anyone who will listen. Awareness is essential.
1
So Donald Trump thinks that handling immigration this way will play well with his base? I hope not.
8
"They had a plan" ... their plan included ignoring the US immigration laws at a great risk. That risk includes being deported without your children. As sad and unfortunate as this is, the laws are in place for a reason. This is similar to those Americans who go to foreign countries and decide to break their stiff drug laws. They end up in foreign prisons (or get a death penalty) and then want other US citizens to bail them out. Immigration laws in the US are not a secret. The offenders are not being "tricked" into breaking the laws. They knowingly break the laws. If they were wealthy foreigners, would you feel the same outrage? Now we have someone in office that wants to enforce the laws that administrations prior to his created, and he's the bad guy?
19
Pres. Obama deported a large number of illegal immigrants. He never resorted to separating families.
4
Have you no sense of decency, shame or compassion?
3
I am shocked. Sickening. And we/our congress are so weak spined they cannot come up with another, more humane way! I'm not sure I could be more ashamed of my country.
5
I repeat (also repeating apology for repulsive image): The emperor wears no clothes!
4
If they are crossing illegally they need to be deported unless they have a valid claim for asylum. The vast majority do not have a valid claim for asylum. They are seeking a better life in another country. Why not deport parents with their children? There would be a different uproar about that. No one wants to see children separated from parents but can someone propose an intelligent way to control the use of children for illegal immigration but still protect those children? The moment those children cross our border the onus is on us to safeguard them. How do we do this and how can we do this for millions of people waiting to do the same thing? This is not as black and white as so many comments are making it. If you don't "separate" children then you must provide the same standard of (very expensive) care for the entire family. If you do deport them with the parents and they are harmed along the way then you are inhumane for not safeguarding them. What is the solution?
15
What do Democrats want? For America to welcome all comers without any vetting process or any other sort of legal pathway into our country, and then hand them a driver's license, voter registration form, Medicaid card, and food stamps, and then enroll their children in a publicly-funded school?
President Trump is a flawed leader, but he is right in insisting that Congress finally and at long last implement a system of legal immigration that welcomes people from around the world who embrace our values, desire to live among us, and can make a positive contribution to our nation. Defenders of the current system often invoke patriotic statements about the contributions that immigrants have made throughout our history, but fail to mention that the huddled masses yearning to breathe free came here LEGALLY.
20
This appeal to save the children is what led Merkel to let 1.4 million migrants into Germany. How well did that work out? Remember the photo of the drowned boy in his father's arms? It didn't matter that the father already had a safe haven in Jordan--he took the bait offered by Merkel because he wanted to get to Canada, where he had relatives. He was willing to risk his children' lives in a sea crossing. These parents too (assuming they are parents, or other relatives) put their children's lives in danger by not going to a border crossing but instead paying 'coyotes' to take them cross country. The young mother had a boyfriend waiting, who had sent her the $ to make the trip and to pay the coyote. What people don't understand is that as long as we put out the red carpet--just letting the cross country illegal entries in with a court date that they will not show up for (80% do not)--the situation will increase the 11-12 million illegal migrants that we already have and don't know what to do with. It ties our country up in knots and for what? So this woman and her son can be with her boyfriend? Her fear of gangs is not grounds for asylum under the rules; she had no chance to stay in USA via a court-granted asylum; her plan was to stay by slipping in illegally and getting lost in the crowd, which is why she avoided the official border crossing.
22
That is not at all what happened to Aylan Kurdi, the 3 year old toddler found drowned on the beach after his boat capsized and his lifejacket was found to be a fake.
His family had been living while their refugee claim through UNHCR to Canada was being vetted, because their sponsorship through relatives had fallen through. That meant, in Jordan, they couldn't legally work. The kids couldn't attend school. They couldn't move forward in their lives. Refugee claims, even Canadian ones, can take 2-6 years, or even longer, when done overseas. Especially for people who come from destroyed countries like Syria, where records can no longer be found.
The death of Aylan Kurdi is a national shame for Canada. His death led to a change in Canadian refugee procedure and galvanized the country, and we immediately began accepting more refugees, and more quickly. Now we have had to stop accepting as many overseas refugees because we are getting so many from the United States. Yes, people are fleeing YOUR country for ours.
All children should have basic rights: the right to shelter, to nutrition, to education, to safety. All families should be able to grow up in a place of safety, security, and where they have a measure of control of their own destiny.
Why shouldn't your country be "tied in knots" to save a woman and her child?
Why hurt humanity's children when you can save them? Isn't going to a better place to make a better life for your children the American Dream?
6
We are at the point where tax cuts for billionaires and scapegoating everyone else on any available topic is all Rs know.
It is disturbing, though, that a rather large swath of Americans believe the worst about undocumented people without a scintilla of evidence for doing so.
Still, I do have to wonder why so many people from elsewhere risk so much to get here, when we increasingly lack so much in basic decency and intellect. No wonder other refugees are choosing Western Europe instead, which will be the all the richer for that choice.
We really are our own worst enemy. That we currently are a global envy is a laughable notion, at best.
4
I may just have an answer to why so many people are still fixated on the US being the place to get into.
Some of these countries are a bit behind the times. The beautiful videos of President Reagan are still being shown over and over. People like them so much that they have not bothered to tell them about any of the changes time has brought. Like he's dead and there have seen several Presidents since.
They walk away from their war zone home thinking that as soon as they get to our border all will be made right.
The solution is to tell them about Canada. And give them a map.
My capacity for expressing disgust, dismay, horror over what Trump and his policies are doing to our country is working overtime. What kind of people would take away children from their mothers?
And, for all the naysayers - you're right - we cannot save everyone in this world. But taking this approach - separation of families - is simply wrong and if it's the best we've got then the US has much bigger problems than people coming across the border seeking help.
7
Cannot wait until November 6, 2018. This year, the choice is simple -- no vote for any Republican candidate whatsoever. I am truly tired of this moral-turpitude party with its total disaster leader: Donald J. Trump.
11
He should be in jail for life. He can never make up for all the damage he has done.
3
I can remember seeing a movie called "El Norte"in 1983 it was partially founded by PBS,and it concerned southern immigrant travelling north to escape genocide happening in their country.Their hope was the USA back then.
3
My Theology teacher at a Catholic all-girls school showed this to our class in the mid-90s. I am grateful for seeing that movie because it forever shaped my view of immigration. I hope can teach my children empathy and compassion for those who have less and simply want more for their kids - as we all do.
4
ABC's "What would you do?" featured a segment where a mom forced her child to steal stuff at a store. People called out the mother and showed empathy to the child. Crime and empathy are not and should not be mutually exclusive. Reunite the mothers who are forcing their child to commit crimes on the other side of the border. Crime and empathy addressed. NY Times readers lead with empathy and ignore the underlying open border issue. Democrats don't see illegal immigrants, they see votes. And for all of the media berating the White House for exploiting these children to achieve a policy objective, may I remind you how Democrats exploited the students of Marjory Stone Douglas for gun control.
8
Illegal immigrants can't vote. Neither can resident aliens.
3
This policy is disgusting and shameful. Not only is it harming innocent children and their families - and the reputation of the United States - but surely it is morally harming the people who enforce it. Who would work for ICE or the border patrol under these circumstances? What is the effect on those who cannot afford to leave their jobs? Another step on the path toward dictatorship : when good people do nothing.
5
The cruelty of this government is unfathomable, but so is the recklessness of these parents. If this woman feared for her safety and the safety of her child in Guatemala why not stay in Mexico, rather than simply passing through. It's not ideal but it's better...and their government isn't going to take their children away.
4
Mothers are being deported without their children?
Where is the demonstration?
5
Simply sickening. Most Americans can't even fathom what it's like to have to endure hardship and depredation on the level that many of these migrants have experienced - and certainly none have experienced the cherry on top of it all of having your children taken from you just at the moment when you think you might have escaped it all.
5
We need Amnesty International to intervene. This thing is so insane and horrible I have no words.
6
I am ashamed of my country!
5
This is a disgrace. If anyone has doubted that Trump is a racist tyrant this atrocity should turn them around. Research has shown that children who have experienced this type of trauma, being separated from a loving parent, will suffer life long effects possibly preventing them from forming intimate relationships, completing their education, holding down a job, reaching their full potential as the gifted human beings they are. Comparing Trumps actions to the actions of Nazi Germany are not an exageration. They are real and we are living in its midst in the 21st century. Frightening.
5
This reeks of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. Who is caring for the babies in diapers?
There are sick Americans and people worldwide who would do anything to get their hands on a child for all types of cruel purposes.
This is U.S. government sanctioned human trafficking by the Trump Administration in our names. Purposely losing children for nefarious purposes.
Americans better get it together because many cruel deplorable people will scream for more terror, more atrocities. They are not decent people no how much they wear God on their sleeves.
2
A response to Lara Trump, as I look at the sparkling family portrait (Eric, Lara, and Pres. Trump holding grandson Luke) that she submitted to Fox News accompanying an article she wrote in praise of her father-in-law's compassion: Take a good look at your son, Lara, and then imagine you’re standing in 100-degree desert heat and Luke is being taken from your arms by uniformed, gun-packing strangers … and he’s crying out to you … and you don’t know where they’re taking him or when you will see him again … and you don’t know where you will be taken … or if you will be sent back to a country where you will be beaten and raped … and the rest of your family may be killed … all because your “benevolent” father-in-law wants to trade your freedom, possibly your life and your son’s life, for political bargaining chips. How do you sleep at night, Lara, when these innocent kids and parents can’t?
2
Trump separating kids from parents is vile; evil and cruel. There is no defense for this policy. Children will suffer lifetime psychological problems from the stress of being separated from parents. Using the Bible to condone this policy is sacriledge. The Bible teaches us to love one another; using the Bible to condone the separation of kids from parents is evil; vile and just terrible. Stop Trump from separating kids from parents. Ray Sipe
4
Taking young children from their parents who are in grave distress and looking for a better life is an atrocity. That is what the Nazis did to the jews. Taking thousands of children from their parents and citing the bible as a basis for doing this is a mass atrocity and a crime against humanity.
And this is from the "pro-life" party and its Trump-appointed henchmen. Where is the outrage from the Republican Congress? By allowing this to go on they are all complicit with this and its massive negative impacts on these poor children, their desperate parents, and the image of the United States.
And on top of it all, they lie about it continuously - that is you, Trump, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Kelly Ann Conway, and Kirstjen Neilsen. You ought to the ashamed of yourselves!
4
Side request: Could the Times do a rundown of the responses, in terms of those who are clearly angry about this, and those who defend Trump, or blame the migrants for all of their own troubles?
There are enough of the latter to lead me to worry that we have a lot of folks unable to empathize with a child or parent's fear. Unable to empathize, perhaps,because they were emotionally deprived in the past, and carry much destructive anger? Like Trump?
There have been more people from different backgrounds - many who oppose uncontrolled illegal immigration - who oppose this cruel - sadistic! -policy of moving children away from parents as if they were stray animals being taken to a shelter.
I do not understand how ICE employees can carry out such orders.
Some have become upset with comparing this tactic to those of the the Nazis. But Trump has gotten away with saying one outrageous and undemocratic thing after another. Now he smugly claims this policy is merely following the law. If he gets away with this, it is one more step towards using dictatorial methods he subscribes to, as he enjoys the paralysis of Congress.
6
I have zero sympathy for this woman. She dragged her child across the Rio Grande, putting both herself and (more importantly) the child in potentially lethal danger. And she was caught. Thanks to the benevolent 9th Circuit, the U.S. government MUST separate the children and put them in the custody of HHS.
What should we do? Hold this woman forever (at at time when thousands of would-be illegally are stampeding the border at the urging of the Open Borders crowd) so we can deport mother and child together? Release the mother into the United States so she can live happily (and illegally) ever after in a country that is not hers? Or send her home and send the child at a later date?
The U.S. sensibly chose the latter. The Times glosses over this woman blatant disregard for the law and tries to present her as a victim. If she's a victim, she's a victim of her own wrongdoing.
Here's an idea, ma'am. Tell the U.S. government where your boyfriend is living illegally in the U.S. and we can deport him and your child together and you can be one big happy family back in Guatemala. If The Times thinks a story like makes people like me more sympathetic to illegal immigrants, you are sadly mistaken. This woman is an awful parent who disrespects the law. Let her live with the consequences of her bad conduct.
21
"An awful parent who disrespects the law." Wow. From my perspective, she and the other parents are trying to give their children a chance, away from gangs and violence, away from the daily threat of death. If you are a parent, what would you do to protect the very life of your child? Stay, and hope no one notices you? Hope for a quick and painless death?
Don't give me some weak-kneed excuse that you would wait your turn in line, hoping you would be selected sometime in the next 10 or 20 years. You and I know that is a fool's choice when your child's life is on the line.
Have you heard about families presenting themselves at a recognized port of entry to request asylum, only to be turned away, day after day? They end up crossing illegally because "there's no room at the inn."
This policy (yes, policy, not law) is the most vicious, cruel action, one I never expected to see in the land of the free, and home of the brave.
3
If I were living in Guatemala, I would work hard to make a better life for myself there. "Away from gangs and violence." Please. Have you ever been to Guatemala? I have, just seven weeks ago. It is not a small country. There are plenty of safe places to live in Guatemala. Safe beautiful places. No gangs. Places where tourists go they are so beautiful.
I would like to own a nicer car and to live in a bigger house in a better neighborhood. Can I just steal my neighbor's car and break into a mansion in a better part of town and take up residence? Well, I guess I can. But I would be thrown in jail. And people like you would have zero sympathy for me (and shouldn't).
This woman is an awful parent. She put her child in mortal danger because she wanted a better life and for U.S. citizens to educate her child in Spanish. She is greedy. And cruel. And she got what was coming to her.
She wanted to protect her child? Please. Was there no place in Guatemala or the giant country of Mexico that was safe? (Or maybe somewhere to the south?) She wanted to live in the U.S. with her illegal immigrant boyfriend. Greed, plain and simple.
Yes, I've heard about families requesting asylum. They are 99 percent fraudulent. Economic migrants are not legitimate asylum seekers. The only reason they are claiming asylum is that people like you have told them asylum is the Golden Ticket to enter the U.S. So suddenly these economic migrants are fleeing political persecution? Their claims are rubbish.
2
I have lived and worked in Guatemala for 27 years. What world do you live in? The poverty, especially of indigenous people is mind-blowing. The government is still dysfunctional after more then 20 years of the termination of an absolutely atrocious civil war, fueled by the United States. The difference between the rich and poor is one of the worst in the world, and you tell me that these people have a choice to live in nice and safe places? How naive are you? Who can afford to live in Gringotown Antigua or other tousrit-destinations, or nice, safe neighborhoods (which are all sporting private, and armed security guards, because even rich people in Guatemala do not feel safe, but they have the means to travel to Miami or Houston for a respite and to stash their money there)? Only rich people.
1
Stop coming here illegally. There are consequences fir breaking our laws.
15
The treatment this woman received from ICE is criminal. No sympathy, no one listening to her, forcing her in lock step with others to board the plane, etc. What now happens to her 8 year-old son? I am appalled at this behavior. This does NOT represent what I and many Americans expect from our government. Her treatment and the fear she and her son now have about being reunited is so inhumane, so heartless.
"the authorities say that parents are not supposed to be deported without their children. But immigration lawyers say that has happened in several cases...."
7
You know there are millions more like her who want to cross the border into the US if they can. What should the US do? Let them all in? They couldn't possibly have any place to house them all.
11
I've read how traumatic this is for the child. What bad people Americans are for letting children and parents be separated. I totally agree that separating families is horrible BUT shouldn't the parents be held responsible for coming to the US illegally??? I would NEVER go to another country illegally so why is it OK for others to come into the US illegally?
19
Dear Clueless-
They are escaping physical abuse and attacks from gangs in these countries. Especially aimed at their children.
They are seeking asylum which is not illegal.
Trump, Sessions, Miller are monsters that make up lies as they go.
Dispicable humans..
4
I don't think you can say "never." I can understand wanting a better life for your child. I can understand wanting safety and economic security. And I can understand the temptation to cut in line because by the time you achieve it legally your children may be fully grown. Never underestimate a parent's desire for their child to have the best. What I CANNOT understand is a parent choosing to bring a child here now, knowing the very real risk that the child may be taken from them.
2
How is this not a crime against humanity?
Those members of the trump administration taking part in this are far more morally reprehensible than those seeking peace and shelter in our country—the motives of these refugees are certainly much easier to defend.
4
The argument that there exists no middle-ground between taking infants and toddlers from their parents and an absolute open border should strain the credulity of even Trump's base supporters. This is one more action in a long chain that makes me believe that the United States will never again be seen - even by those who once were friends - as a country that acts true to the ideals it so loudly proclaims.
7
That ANYONE in this country can find this acceptable, or an excuse for it is beyond comprehension. These are children. They are not a danger to the US. At least not know. They will be in 10-15 years if we do not stop this treatment. Congress needs to do something. People need to VOTE this government out.
9
Two thoughts:
1) The news is the injury or death of a child due to questionable parenting and resounding across internet the refrain "I would do ANYTHING to protect my child". That's what these parents are doing. Undertaking great hardship and risk to LEGALLY APPLY for asylum in order to save their children from the dangers they face where they come from. Parents, willing to do ANYTHING to protect their kids. (And if we have any conscience at all we can only hope that US policies have absolutely *nothing* to do with creating any dire situations they are escaping from.)
2) Child development experts, medical people, parents, and yes, simply caring human beings are sickened as the Trump administration further stains its hands and ours as hundreds, possibly thousands, of children (desperately hope I'm wrong about this) are transformed into psychologically damaged young people who will certainly have every reason to despise the US government.
In 20/25 years the least empathetic view of this horror will provide news consultants with endless hours of punditry and will win financial backing for politicians (feigning innocence and ignorance) rallying supporters to regurgitate the ever useful "why do they hate us so much?"
2
This policy reminds me so much of how Guliani as mayor of NYC "solved" the homeless problem there: He had them arrested and thrown into jail. I would not be surprised if he suggested this separation policy to Trump, Sessions or Stephen Miller.
This entire administration is pretty disgusting. Frankly the only people I came to somewhat respect are the ones who have resigned.
4
I think they shouldn't of keep the ones like her here at all, sent them back to other side of border, she illegally crossed and it was her responsible to get her and her child home. The ones who came and asked for asylum at check points are being kept with their family waiting to be processed. The adults that came alone for asylum are kept in other area, the children that came alone in another area. It's the ones who just came across that got separated, like I said should of just sent them back right then. I agree shouldn't separate just send them out together. You can not just walk in our country without going to check points.
May seem heartless but we are over run with illegals that is costing us billions a year. The caravan she came with was warned but they came anyway and chanting all the way. Yes the kid should of been sent with her and shouldn't had bought her a plane ride, let them find their way home just like she came. If they deported them right then this wouldn't had happened. But the main blame is on her. She knew and came anyway.
Don't separate, just deport the ones who sneak in right then, stop spending our tax dollars on ones who can't follow our laws.
13
If we loose a balanced Supreme Court we have lost our democracy
3
Perhaps I'm naïve, but I am appalled at how many commenters, and those who recommend their comments, are totally devoid of empathy. I wonder how freely they would express these views without cover of anonymity. Many of these people come here, not only because they are poor, but desperate to protect their children from gang violence and sex trafficking at home. I thought we had progressed as a nation from the WWII era when shiploads of Jews who were denied entry and forced to return to certain death. Or from Japanese internment camps. Actually, current Trump administration actions are worse. Those families were at least able to remain together.
8
No one should be deported without reuniting with children so that all can leave together.
The inhumanity and callousness of this policy is jarring. This is not who we are.
9
We should do this for misdemeanor parking tickets as well; Take their kids away. It would definitely dissuade people from parking illegally... They are criminals after all.
2
This is very sad to see and a disgraceful way to handle the situation. But it seems to me that none of this would be taking place if the immigrants had not broken and scorned our laws by illegally entering our country. Families should be reunited and sent back together. If they want to come here they must follow the rules and not be lawbreakers. If you think this is too restrictive then write to your congressperson, demonstrate and vote. But don't encourage people who want to come here to make their very first step into the US a criminal one.
12
I always thought that these types of crimes could only occurred in totalitarian countries, but .... in the United States?
I guess, I have been wrong about my country!
5
Let's stop being outraged and start doing something.
If you are not registered and fully ready to vote in November, make it happen today.
3
So dishonest. She's claimed refugee status after she was caught jumping the Rio Grand with her son. If not, we'd never hear from her - or other similar 'refugees'- again. Illegal immigrant pandering is creating privileged classes of dependents, exempt from the law.
26
What year are we in? 1990's with the Serbs and Rwanda? 1930's or 1940's in Germany or Russia? Etc.
3
Well folks the US has sunk to a new low.
We’re now level with the ground.
3
I can't believe the heartless and cruel behavior by Sessions (who actually quotes the Bible to us ) and the department of Homeland Security. It's becoming more embarrassing to be an American every day. Trump lies (about everything) and calls it a Democratic policy. Homeland security feels no shame, well the rest of America does. At least those of us with some morality and a conscience feel shame and horror that we keep kids in concentration camps all bt themselves? Do any of the people tearing the kids from their parents, have kids themselves? We don't know what kind of horror these people are fleeing but I'm sure they didn't make the hellish journey to see their kids snatched away. Call your Senators!
4
This is kidnapping, pure and simple. Separation is different. If an adult is deported, their children should go with them.
5
Members of the Trump Administration quote the bible to support their inhumane policy of separating children from their parents. They must have missed this part in bible class: "....Suffer little children to come unto Me and forbid them not for such is the kingdom of God...."
1
You guys act like this is anybody's fault other than the parents. It isn't Trumps fault. It isn't the Republicans' fault. It isn't the Democrats' fault. It's the parents'.
17
I remember the "sermon on the mountain of refugees" where Jesus said "steal their children before you kick them out".
Don't I?
She decided to commit a crime with her child. What did she expect to happen?
15
She expected to not be caught, join up with the boyfriend and become a dependent of U.S. taxpayers. At that point, it would be easy to have another child here and apply for permanent resident status. Whether she would receive it is another story but better odds.
If the Democrats think running these stories everyday in the major papers is a winning issue in November they are wrong. Trump said he would start enforcing the laws on this. The mother knew it was likely she would be caught and chose to put her child in this situation anyway. The blame is 100% on her.
9
Trump's sadism at work. This is proof of sadism. And they get on television with grins on their faces. They enjoy hurting the asylum seekers. These children are being kidnapped and traumatized by our government. Trump should be arrested for child abuse and endangerment. There is NEVER, EVER a good reason or excuse to abuse and traumatize children. Zero tolerance for child abuse.
1
This particular child was not traumatized. He liked his detention center, the food, the opportunity to play and learn some English. Of course, children should not be separated from parents, especially little ones, families should be deported together (less expensive and more humanitarian).
4
Your tax dollars at work! I guess this is what Republicans’ vision of small government looks like? Despicable hypocrites, all of them!
3
Dear NYT,
Rather than just scan comments to ensure they are on topic and are not abusive before then being published, if you are also actually absorbing and taking on board the valid comments all these enraged readers have taken the time to write, then doesn't that give you enough clout to take these combined comments en-masse to some higher authority which has even more clout?
Doesn't all this justifiable rage and heartbreak, and repeated referencing of Hitler make you wonder that you really may have the power to topple, punish and imprison certain members of the current WH administration, and specifically its 'leader'?
Because in the end, if Mueller can't quite come up with enough evidence to have him impeached, what then? The amount of blatant aiding and abetting, and turning an oh-so-obvious blind eye that the GOP enjoys on a daily basis is beyond sickening, scandalous and cowardly.
I beseech you as an organisation to do something for your loyal readers, which in turn will end this and other atrocities so casually committed by Trump.
It would also stop the rest of the world mocking and ridiculing the USA.
4
You and all America need to recognize this painful truth: We no longer live in a democracy. We live under a dictatorship under a tyrant who has nothing but contempt for the constitution and the rule of law.
3
To all families seeking asylum in the US.
Tattoo the name of your child on their arm.
That’s what we did when escaping the last months of the Ottoman Empire when they were massacring Christians.
...and in related news, it's an American citizen who should be the one to be deported!
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/18/us/cop-molests-girl-deport-mother.htm...
ICE- Homeland Security
[email protected]
202-401-1474
2
sorry for typo- [email protected]
1
This story and the stories of many mothers and children break my heart. It is natural that people see the shining "city on a hill" and march towards it. It is inevitable that we need to turn some or many of them away - but do that with compassion.
While I do not know the answer, the past administrations have dealt with this problem without resorting to separating child from mother. As a parent, I cannot fathom the desperation that leads one on a dangerous and perilous journey with a young child in their lap.
Please stop this practice.
8
The past administrations have NOT dealt with it. That's why there is such a problem right now. Since January, 108,000 people have been caught and sent back.
10
Actions have consequences. Her expectations were unrealistic.
The children will be cared for until a sponsor or relative can be found.
13
actually human rights are realistic
2
Steve
Do you, or does anyone in your family have children? Don’t you want the best for them in terms of health, safety and a viable future? And if your children were taken away from you for any reason, would you find comfort in your response? Your response actually took my breath away. There are ways of refusing refugees without resorting to cruelty and behaving in a morally bankrupt fashion
4
Just remember, this administration wants to streamline the government and is now demonstrating the cost of mishandling the bureaucracy. The negligence is unspeakable.
My parents lost me in a Sears when I was 5 years old by mistake. I am 43 and can still recall how scared I was wandering through the aisles looking for them. After a few minutes, I was found, safe.
If I can still recall the horrible feelings of being "lost" for 5-10 minutes, imagine what these children are suffering.
This is an appalling policy, one in which needs to stop. I don't care who started it, it needs to end, now.
11
It does matter who is responsible for it. Because people that callous and cruel shouldn’t be in charge of a school PTA meeting, let alone the White House.
1
These kids have been traveling for thousands of miles like hobos across Mexico and seen and endured who knows what along the way. It’s your comparing your response to that to this that makes it difficult taking many of these comments written here seriously. Policies based on emotions do not necessarily address real needs that matter to those here in flight.
8
You obviously miss my point....
I was lost for all of 5 minutes in a department store, separated from my parents, not knowing what would happen next. I can STILL recall that horrible time, so I can't even imagine what these children are enduring who are spending weeks/months without their parents!
The stories are painful to read, heart wrenching and, at times, horrible; yet within these stories reveals the compassion and sympathies of ordinary Americans. We are a just, caring and loving nation. It is a beacon of hope and opportunity; and a magnet for illegal migration into this nation. Stories of woe and despair feed upon our better angels of the American population; fanning our liberal sentiments for forgiveness and acceptance. In Latin American countries, it is widely known that once an illegal crosses, American norms and statues will allow all illegals to stay without repercussion. American immigration law is an inconvenience at best to illegal immigrants and not to be adhered to. The perilous journey, putting children at risk, paying smugglers and determination to enter illegally serve as herculean tasks to be rewarded and as a justification to remain illegally. While millions wait and go through the immigration maze to enter legally, illegal entrants are protected and extolled as people seeking a better life for their children. Illegal immigrants have gamed the system and play the sympathy card to a nation of compassionate people who believe that if illegals have successfully entered, then they must be protected!
6
The point of the story is that SOME deportations have occurred where the parent is leaving without the child/children? who accompanied them over the border.
As reported, the immigration authorities say it is not their intent for this to happen.
How this discussion devolved into "bad Trump" instead of "immigration authorities should get their act together" is an example of the result of reactionary, partisan views that really don't apply to the situation.
Nobody really wants us to keep Elsa's child and I have confidence that they will be reunited and hope they never return to this country illegally.
12
"I can't go without my son" If I had said that, I would not "go."
Choices freely made; consequences are obviously to be faced.
15
I think we need to begin organizing a nation-wide protest. This is NOT what our nation, or our citizens, should be standing for.
8
Agreed. A Nationwide protest to stop looking the other way about the illegals. You get caught for anything, you're sent back. You get caught driving without a license or insurance, you're sent back and they take your car. You get caught working u see someone else's social security numbe r, caught and sent back. No more leniency.
10
Ice claims that it gives separated parents a bilingual flyer explaining how to find their children. Even if they do, it won’t help the many immigrants who are illiterate even in Spanish, or those who don’t even speak Spanish. Many migrants, speak only an indigenous language. This is making it even more traumatic for children who don’t speak English or Spanish. There are many different indigenous languages, and ICE can’t find staff who speak them.
5
I think we owe something to our southern neighbors. Some countries are so poor and some countries so rich. Our immigrant policy should be humane. The US partially caused some of the bad things that are happening in poor countries.
However: We don't have evidence that it is traumatic to have kids live apart from their moms for a few months or six months, because it isn't traumatic
Yes--if it's being done in a brutal way, or if the kids are being mistreated, that's one thing. (I haven't read evidence that is the case here; it might be, that's not my point.)
People are saying that separating moms from kids is the worst kind of abuse, and I don't agree.
I accept that some moms are single. And women have careers. They can be top notch lawyers, or film producers, or in the military. Sometimes, accepting a job where they have to leave their children with someone is the best thing for the family in the long run.
The kids will be fine, imo. No evidence to the contrary.
I push back on this idea that having kids living apart from mothers for a time is a form of abuse. People watch out. That idea will come back and bite us.
4
With all your respect, you have NO idea what you are saying. I am an mother of one boy almost 3 years. Sometimes we are in places and he runs away from me and for a few seconds I cannot see him and for a few seconds my heart stops until I finally see him. I am talking of a few seconds, imagine days. I cannot imagine being away from him for weeks or months. One thing is to choose and leave your child behind for a better job or to go to another country, but you know where you leave your child, you know who is with him/her, you can talk to your child any moment you want. Imagine the opposite, not being able to see him, to speak with him, to know where and with whom he/she is . So, please you are free to say what you think but to be so sure that there will not be consequences it's way silly. Even doctors say so. It's been published it's been talked about, there will be consequences.
But her child wasn't kidnapped.
These kids who come here are trying for a better life in this country, and they might well get it if they stick with it and find a relative to take them.
If it all turns out well, I doubt that living apart from their families for a few weeks or months will be harmful in the least. They will probably make friends. Honestly, there's too much hysteria here.
Kids face cancer, violence, war, starvation. Kids suffer.
But kids living with a family, or in a kids' center for a little while, in a nice stable country, on the way to a better life? (Unless we get reports that they are being brutalized, then I will definitely change my mind.)
I'm sure doctors don't say a kid can't be apart from their mother. They probably say a child should have a caring adult presence. If our government is not providing that, it's a crime. But I read that they are providing that.
I wish these kids the best. I think they will be fine.
Yes--it might be hard on the mother to leave the child behind. I get that. It might be terrible for her if she decides to leave the child behind forever, so he can grow up the the US, but she might decide to do that. Her larger problem is that she is poor in an unsafe country. That is her child's larger problem, as well. And it is a problem! Being separated from his mom for a little while? A month? In a perfectly safe environment? I think he will be fine.
I wish them both well.
I don't want people to think I am against immigrants. Something about the arguments here is upsetting me, not immigrants.
I don't mean to make this about me, either, but ...I grew up in flyover country and at the time I went to college and studied science, I don't know if people can believe the pressure against young girls who did that. Women should have children and they should stay home with them!
Now, people in flyover country have accepted that women can be in the military! Can leave their kids with a caretaker, or in an institutional setting (summer camp, boarding school) or a family. Can be single mothers! And still pursue a career. That's huge.
Desperate people who cross the border have many serious problems.
But in and of itself, there is nothing wrong with kids living apart from their loving moms temporarily. There are too many commentators saying that kids should never be left without their moms. The NYT now says kids can't be in institutional settings (which includes day care, remember). That's not true at all. The moms probably suffer a lot more than the kids. And I can see the difference between a military mom and a desperate immigrant. But these commentators are saying something untrue and a little dangerous, imo. Probably passions are so high here no one will believe me.
The stories reveal a common theme, an entitlement to cross into the US illegally; or state "fear" of returning home, and asylum will magically be granted. It is shameful that these migrants, hopeful illegal entrants, have been given false information concerning crossings. Our liberal mind-set and compassion have been taken advantage to the benefit to the illegal crossers. All state they all fear for their safety; wish for a better life and opportunity. But could not the same sentiments and desires be applied to those who are waiting legally through proper channels. Regardless of the plights of these would be illegal immigrants, enforcing the current immigration laws should not be seen as inhumane but as a deterrent to those who game our immigration laws. The illegal immigrant play book is common and has been used for years: cross illegally, plea asylum, receive a court date and do not return; hide in the shadows and amnesty will follow! What the current administration has donees an attempt to break the gaming cycle and enforce current laws to deter would be illegal crossers. The US is a finite country; at what point do we reach a saturation point that will transform our nation from a first to a third world country...?
17
George, absolutely correct. Many areas of the US are pretty close to 3rd world countries right now. Some places won't hire you if you don't speak spanish.
7
I don’t know what it will take, Bob Muller, Stormy Daniels, or a democratic house in 2018. Please this country needs to move on before it is too late.
4
I'm a firm believer in maintaining healthy family units. However, when families knowingly and willfully break the law by illegally (and often dangerously) sneaking into the county, it makes the adults criminals. The county is doing the children a favor by removing them from the negative influence of those criminals. Crime breeds crime.
15
This story is sad and yes it should bother all people. But what it is is blackmail against the American people. It is immigrants who are using children to come here and for reasons to augment their chances of staying here. One often unmentioned issue is that often they come with only one of their children and leave the rest behind. A move that goes against all the talk about danger and fear as evidently what's more important is have a clear change of getting in with a child and NOT moving their children out of danger. Most of these immigrants are economic immigrants who are convinced its better in the USA then where they come from. And that alone is no reason to circumvent the rules. We shouldn't be swayed by the use of children as a way to get parents legal status.
17
Nothing about this ongoing horror show makes sense! We are literally watching our democracy collapse in big ways and small every single day. Whatever happened to our system of checks and balances? We have a president who is abusing the powers of his office daily and yet the Republicans who are taking up too much space in Congress have yet to speak out because they fear his wrath. Reelection is everything to them and they will sell their souls, if necessary, to achieve that. Remember the quote: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
5
This is the Trump Administration's version of putting these desperate folks in a Sophie's Choice situation having to choose between two impossible choices - fleeing violence and abuse in their home country OR trying to make it to the US to seek asylum or at least make a better life for their family but then having their children ripped from their arms and being separated. It is beyond unimaginable and deplorable. To the Trump Administration - reverse this horrific policy TODAY and then work with Congress to get the laws changed. Good governance and having a conscious demands it.
4
"He has food, shelter and his own bed" - That's the minimum standard we follow now in this country for whether or not we are inhumane? that's good to know...
As horrible as this is..it is unfortunately the law, and was the law before Trump went into office. This was going on when Obama was in office as well. According to 2016 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals migrant children are turned over to the HHS and cannot be housed in adult criminal facilities.
It is equally as horrible and tragic as women who get pregnant and then go to jail and have the newborn ripped from there arms a day after birth. This has been going on for years, because the fact is they don't let kids go to prison with their parents in any scenario.
The difference here is they are catching more immigrants at the border and the media is publicizing it. But if you were caught in 2016 the same policy applied.
Funny how people don't remember all of the stories from a few years ago about the wave of migrant children housed by the government.
I am not taking sides, I just find it interesting how everyone is suddenly so appalled by something that has been going on for years. I find it horrible for both illegal immigrants and domestic women who get incarcerated and are separated from young kids. The worst is mom's who give birth in prison and have the newborn taken away shortly after. One can only hope that for the immigrants the separation is much shorter. This women in the story, her child should be free to join her back in the native country, she just has to coordinate this happening now.
12
Every single person engaged in this practice needs to be named. Who, exactly, moved the child away from the mother? Who saw to it that she was put on a plane without her child? These things don't just "happen," passive voice, without actors. The people following orders are just as guilty as the policy makers. And Trump and Sessions should be sued to have to personally pay for the psychological treatment of all the children they have abused.
7
It is a matter of time before some of these children die in government custody. Then the lawsuits will begin.
I do not wish for it, but it is reality.
4
They will also be molested or otherwise abused; there are many reasons why major efforts are done to prevent placement of children in foster care unless absolutely necessary -- this violates everything known about children's needs, and providing optimum care if and only if they must be taken from parents. This shuld earn the US condemnation from other countries and he UN
2
The Trump administration is capable of new, evil lows in our names, and I hope all of us will call our congress people to express our outrage and not just write to the Times. But I have been disheartened to see so little concern about our murderous participation in the war in Yemen, and our illegal drone strikes in the middle east, strikes which killed many civilians under Obama, and now kill even more innocents since Trump has declared there is no need to exercise restraint in our strikes. Yes, we were murdering under the Obama administration too, with little protest from us--the only people who can stop the killing. Americans AND our congress need to fight to be more informed and more in control of our very dangerous military. Only Americans can stop the economic and military damage we do to the rest of the world.
2
This humanitarian crisis is very unfortunate and sad. But please don't blame the Trump administration. Several factors have created this situation and in all fairness the Trump administration enforcing the laws or as the secretary of Homeland Security says doing their job, is the least of them.
7
As a parent, the scene of a small child crying in distress with no one who will comfort her sickens me. What does this say about the morality of our country? How can we criticize human rights elsewhere?
This is neither the America I know nor support. This is an outrageous and inhumane policy; truly evil.
Jeff Sessions and other leaders slyly quote the Bible (Romans 13!) and Christian doctrine but are deaf to the words of Jesus: "Whatsoever you do to the least of my children you do also unto me."
2
I am a child psychiatrist specializing in trauma. There is never a good excuse for child abuse. Never. Stop using innocent children as political pawn.
8
And this is the America of today. How sad. For the first time ever I'm ashamed to be an American.
4
If we deport parents but keep their children, how is that not kidnapping?
1
And we should do what? Just let them in? I'm sure the coyotes will be glad to know that if you show up at the border with a child in tow ICE will just let you in. What could possibly go wrong? This could be cleared up in a heartbeat if the Democrats didn't insist on open boarders.
8
What does Fox News think. about this situation? it appears that our #45 only watches this so-called "news".
Sad , so sad!!
1
I have faith that this young boy will soon be flown back to Guatemala, to join his mother and extended family, where he belongs.
And I have hope that Edgar will soon be safely and expeditiously deported so that he can join them too.
Longer term, my hope is that we implement E-Verify, build a wall, end chain migration, end the Visa lottery, and get better at vetting asylum seekers and others who are so clearly trying to manipulate us and our generosity.
This woman trekked through thousands of miles, in a perfectly safe and stable country (Mexico), to get here. Why? Because once she got here, she would be able to free-ride off of hard working Americans.
These people have ruined their countries. And if we let them mass migrate to ours, they'll ruin ours too. They need to be stopped. It's a global trend, and Europe is slowly waking up too. Once the threat becomes broadly acknowledged, then the real pain will begin.
It may look like what we saw at the Gaza border last month, with soldiers having to shoot people who are storming the border defenses. But this life is worth it. If they want some of it, they need to build such a life in Guatemala or Honduras.
8
And when the gorillas point automatic weapons at civilians, how do they “build” a better life ?! I want to vomit over the commenters with their insane “free ride” comments. You know who gets a free ride ?
The man in the White House, illegally making money while president. Congress gets a free ride with full health care coverage, huge pensions, and voting their own raises! Wall Street gets a free ride by bribing oops lobbying our crooked Senators to amend the federal tax code to benefit only the super wealthy. The free rides are all at the top. And it’s disgusting.
I weep for all of these parents and children. WHY can't this government get anything right? At every turn lies abound. HOW is is possible to view this as anything akin to someone who is a citizen being jailed or sent to prison? These people have little or no understanding of the language or justice system. HOW can they be reunited?
It seems as if Messrs Sessions, Trump and Miller have been too preoccupied with detentions and separation that no one gave any thought to the heartache and headache of tracking where everyone went so they could be reunited.
This must stop right now! This must end right now!
1
It’s become a difficult feat, but this is almost certainly a new low for the Trump Administration. Cruel and unusual punishment is unconstitutional done to American citizens. It should be equally unacceptable to other human beings too.
3
Enforcing immigration law - regardless of your stance on the issue - does not justify becoming a monster.
The fact that Republicans are "divided" on this issue and, by extension in a representative democracy, the public at large, suggests the monsters within are breaking-out of their corporeal prisons...
It’s a sad story for sure and let me just say up front, I am not a Trump fan! Didn’t vote for him, never will. I am not a Democrat follower either. I hated HRC and her money grabbing family. Bill Clinton is no better. However, lets break this done a bit. Change the scenario. Let’s say for sake of argument, a woman and her child broke into a private home here in the US for purpose of taking up residence. What would happen? The police would come, arrest her, put her in jail and put the child in protective custody. We wouldn’t bat an eyelash and would expect that she knew she was breaking the law and putting her child at risk. So basically the same story only on a broader more political scale. As for her “good man”, well, he is here illegally too so therefore since he made it, she took the chance and risk to try and repeat the same journey. Not a good decision on her part. As much as I hate Trump and his lying and politics, I have to agree that the illegal immigration needs to stop. Is the wall the answer? It’s part of the stemming of the tide. A physical barrier is one deterrent. Think Great Wall of China and other barriers built by the Romans etc. i hope she gets reunited with her son soon.
7
Emma Lazarus poem, inscribed on the Statue of Liberty should be required reading for all those involved in this debate concerning separation of children from their mom's...
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Today I read it and weep. This policy is hardly what Lazarus every envisioned and defies the very historical foundations on which this great country was built..and how it was built. On the backs of immigrants seeking a new and safe existence within the bosom of Lady Liberty arms.
The notion that America is "the land and of the free and home of the brave" needs to be updated. America is a mess. And it's being "led" by a President who is a liar, a con-artist, and a despot. He cares only about himself. And he is ruining this country.
2
Evangelicals elected this President and his minions. They support everything he says and does, blindly. Trump knows it. He can do anything he wants to anyone, which he loves. Break the law, start trade wars because he feels like it, treat illegal immigrants like dirt (the evangelicals really like this one), create chaos by lying constantly and refusing any responsibility for his actions, ignore democratic norms, especially voting rights and the right to free elections unhindered by foreign states. I could go on and on, but I don't know why.
The chaos this president has created is unprecedented. The money he will cost us to clean up the messes he has created are going to be astronomical, talk about high taxes! An incredible amount of work will be needed to get our erstwhile allies to again trust us. I don't believe we can elect enough sane Presidents consecutively to convince them we are in it for the long haul.
Regarding illegal immigrants, we could do the logical thing and set standards that employers and employees could realistically follow, but that would mean employers might have to pay higher wagers, follow safe labor practices and generally be more humane so it's not going to happen. And Republicans and Democrats in Congress and the Senate would have to work together, talk about a slippery slope to wishful thinking! In the meantime, Russia and Putin are having a field day watching our country disintegrate.
1
I do not support Trump and his henchmen but I do support controlling all border access.
You do not enter any country illegally and move about as a unknown and pretend to be a quasi-citizen.
I wish the children were not separated from their parents but they are being cared for and fed well and this separation will slow the flow oof illegal immigrants with children greatly.
Also, claiming domestic abuse or gang retaliation is merely an easy way to currently use our laws for entry. It has to stop. It must.
We cannot handle this in the future.
8
This is unspeakable! It is also inevitable. If you don't care at all how much harm you are doing, why pay attention to details? Whether or not Trump has colluded with Russia, or obstructed justice, or committed other "high crimes and misdemeanors"--I believe we'll find that out soon enough--there can be no doubt now that every minute his policies on immigration continue he is committing gravely inhumane acts worthy of indictment and conviction before an international human rights tribunal. I'm sickened by what I see and by the complicity of the Republicans in the House and Senate, who have the power to stop what's going on, failing in their moral responsibilities. I'm equally sickened by the complicity to Trump's supporters in letting this continue!
This is not, as your headline states, a "problem." This is a crime against humanity, and the Trump Administration must be held to account. Each and every one of them who is responsible for this criminal injustice - the president, Stephen Miller, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, Kirstjen Nielsen - every one, and their enablers in Congress who refuse to act to stop it, have turned our country into an outlaw state. How do they sleep at night?
1
Trump and Sessions are moral degenerates for imposing this policy of separating young children from their Moms and Dads. They will not change their ways. They will only lie and blame others.
The real responsibility for changing this travesty lies with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and the Republicans who control the House and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republicans who control the Senate. They can quickly pass a bill that prohibits this cruel policy.
If these Republicans cannot or will not use their control of Congress to stop the evil policy of this President, then they must be removed from power in the 2018 election.
If these Republicans fail to act, then it is we the voters who must take control by putting into Congress people who understand the evil that this policy is and have the courage to stop this President from inflicting more harm on these children. It is on us to act.
1
During my schooling at Holy Cross Convent,1960s & & 70s in Tamil Nadu (Madras State) India, I could witness the cartons of CARE (Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere ) carry
milk powder,Soya oil etc.to feed the poor children in the convent.
Today, hearing the news about the son separated from his mother in the oldest and the largest democracy is a painful
and pathetic situation. Please don't separate the children from their parent and ensure that they are returned to their native land safely as they arrived. When America itself is a super power born out of a colony, is it right to break a family?
1
Trump’s family separations literally makes my stomach churn. I wake at 3am in disgust. It’s not far the Boko Haram kidnapping in Nigeria.
Over the past two days I have collected some adjectives from news reports:
• Inhumane
• Torture
• Kidnapping
• Psychologically damaging
• Morally reprehensible
• Infant victims
• This isn’t who we are (Well, looks like it is!)
• Heartless
• Baby snatchers
• Immoral
• Deplorable
• Innocent victims
• Traumatizing
• Children as a negotiating tool.
• Terrible
Trump is joining the worst of the world’s dictators, from the beginning of civilization. Our species would not have evolved without mothers/families protecting their young. That Trump lacks the imagination, understanding and compassion to control immigration in any other way is damning.
2
I am dismayed by the callousness of many of the comments. As Charles Blow has so eloquently said: "THESE ARE CHILDREN"! And yes, of course there are many heartbreaking stories of US children being removed from their families. But what kind of argument is that? That does not make what is happening right now at the border right. Where is compassion and the moral compass of these people? I now understand better how Trump and his incompetent, corrupt, and cruel minions could have happened, and still hold people who voted for him responsible!
5
Watch this very insightful interview between Amy Goodman, and author Joe Nevins, regarding the topic of 'illegals' and the US/Mexico border. It is very insightful. It's a two-part video, but only totals 20 minutes. It references quotes from border patrol agents themselves, some of whom disagree with the policies behind the very work they are hired to do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzA48-UGCJg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouz_NO6xChQ
1
Jeff Sessions and the rest of the Trump administration are doing wonders for the advertising industry's election business this Fall. They are no doubt drooling over the many ways they can present this debacle. If I were a Democrat running for office, I'd have problems deciding which ads to pick, there are so many choices of horrible parts of the Trump administration to run against. November will be key in finding out America's choice of whether they approve the continuation of our slide into Fascism.
1
Don't want to lose your children? Then don't commit a crime. American parents have to live with that deal. Why can't others be expected to as well?
8
This entire argument is bogus. The problem can be solved if these people refrain from trying to enter our country illegally, endangering themselves and their children. Every one of these people should be charged with felony child endangerment. This plan to flood our country with foreign paupers has to end now and it will be ended, one way or another. I hope the Democrats are listening.
6
Please pay attention...when we citizens who do not want to live under the coming dictator state try to flee, can we expect to be treated this way by other countries? Will they take the children away & put them where they can not be seen by their parents? Will they deport the American parents fleeing violence & hatred & death in America back to Trussia without their children? Would serve us right!
2
Actually - you won’t be able to just cross in to another country without a visa or some kind of documents permitting you in to a foreign country. Try it and see what happens.
To anyone who would actually support tearing children from the arms of their parents in the name of "law and order" (or whatever nonsensical excuse may be offered), I would suggest seeking some kind of treatment for the emotional trauma which must still be plaguing you.
Hurt people hurt people. Anyone who would willingly participate in, or make excuses for such grotesque behavior has quite clearly suffered from some sort of corruption of the psyche.
The rest of us cannot afford to become numb to this Sisyphean nightmare. If humanity itself does not prevail, none of us will.
2
I hear all this lip service about following the 'law ' but I would like to see the same 'law abiding ' standards applied to Trump and his entourage.
5
In a few weeks or months we will start seeing predatory sex abuse claims from these camps used to house children. It is bound to happen. It always does.
Who will take responsibility for this? Who will we hold accountable?
We are already hearing rumors of child sex abuse in these holding camps. The GOP and the President own this.
3
its not Trump’s fault. It’s the individuals and institutions that enable him, like the media. As Michelle Wolf put it, the media “created the monster and now profits off him.”
1
Her boyfriend should go get him and take him home. Or wait is he illegal too? Well he needs to pick him up and give his girlfriends son a ride home and stay there if he isn't legal here either. They should of sent the boy home with mother but I blame her more for putting her son in danger, maybe now she will try applying the right way, no it isn't easy but it can be done.
6
We can see Stephen Miller's influence here.
3
The United States has championed the cause for Child's Rights in every country yet we did not sign the International Law on Child's Right because the Republican Party believed this law would allow children to not be like their parents and allow children the right to object to obstructive behavior by their parents. A false argument can always be counted by the GOP. Children are the byproduct of ourselves, this is why we are embarrassed when they say something racist.
ICE should remember in what country they live in. We are not a third world country. Our laws can be retroactive. All who follow Session's orders on separating children from their parents or deporting parents/children without the other are violating humanity laws. They will be prosecuted long after this Pretend King Trump's regime is over. The defense of "I was just following orders" was found to be immoral and illegal at the Nuremberg Trials. All those who follow these inhumane orders will be penalized by us. As Americans we have moral values as well as law. We will show these Storm Troopers led by a racist DOJ Mini Emperor that law will win the day. Are we there yet?
1
Our criminal laws are constitutionally prohibited from being retroactive like you describe. There won't be criminal charges against these people unless they're currently breaking laws or unless our constitution undergoes a major revision.
French policiy is better both for the state and for the deported migrants : families go together, it's only when they refuse to take their children that these are put upon custody of the state.
At least Trump didn't get from Kim Jong Un the idea that everybody could be shot.
1
This is so unspeakable. the absolute horror for both parent and child. Please keep the pressure on to make this stop. ashamed to be an American
2
The government has shut down ports of entry for asylum seekers and, if at some point of desperation, a mother and child try to cross the border at another point the mother is arrested and the child is removed. This is more than heartless. It is evil and unamerican.
1
The Trump administration is holding the children as hostages to convince Congress to fund the wall. It is extortion. It is immoral. It is disgusting. This makes it clear that Trump does not care about anyone who does not give him absolute loyalty. He abuses power. He criticizes the policies of our allies - Canada, Mexico and Germany. He is NOT what America stands for.
2
There's an easy way to keep this from happening... don't try to come into the US illegally with your family. Don't blame law enforcement for doing their job.
5
Heart-wrenching cruelty.
Oh, the hypocrisy of Republicans.
"Pro-life", but once the child is born...
Deny adequate healthcare and nourishment...
Deny essential services...
Deny quality education...
Split them from their mothers...
Abandon them to fend for themselves.
Oh, the cruelty and hypocrisy of Republicans...
2
I truly feel sorry for the children, but is the parents fault.
7
This policy is unamerican.
I am ashamed of our politicians for letting this happen.
Does the world community think Americans stand behind this and other crazy policies?
1
A nation that implements such shameful policies is not a great nation. The Trump administration is an abomination. It will take decades to undo the damage he’s inflicting on America’s soul, psyche, and standing in the world. Our enemies and rivals must be ecstatic.
3
Where is Pope Frances when we need a voice of compassion?
4
The US Government is Disenfranchising these children that will come back to bite us all. What you're doing is alienating these people, and what comes from that are a class of people that will come to hate the US. Just like the US has done in the middle east, and you know what comes from that practice.
1
Is there an option to take the child with her?
2
Send the kids back as well, problem solved.
11
The United Statees is showing itself to be a fascist nation, and no one is doing anything about it. Mr. Trump is not building a base, he is building an army that will be willing to engage in civil war to protect what they see as “their” liberties and to save “their” Commander in Chief.
2
Can I naively ask why we don’t work with Guatemala to stem the tide of refugees?
1
Yeah, Guatemala should listen to us. After all, we were kind enough to overthrow its government, in 1954, in order to protect our United Fruit Company's monopolies.
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/country-company-1954-guate...
The world looks very different when viewed from an historical perspective, and without nationalist blinders.
2
Cruel. Inhumane. Against everything our country stands for. This should be the final straw against the Trump Administration. When officials can't see a child as a human being, something must be done. No one can turn a blind eye and thus condone such behavior. Wake up America and save yourself before it's too late.
What kind of monster pulls a terrified child away from their pleading mother? There's nothing more to say.
The United States has nothing but contempt for "brown people" south of the border. We've deposed elected leaders, supported rebels and dictators. We've played with their economies and decimated their small farms. We gave them violent gangs that thrived under corrupt and weak governments. Then when decent, fearful people desperately flee the mess we have had a hand in creating, we change law and policy on the fly to refuse entry here. Add this to a glorious history that includes genocide of the native people, enslavement of Africans and the subsequent Jim Crow era. Was I surprised when I saw a gleeful and sneering Jeff Sessions cherry pick a Bible verse to justify his atrocity agains humanity? I'm so glad good Christians are finally showing the rest of us heathens what following the Bible really means...
3
Despicable! I have no words to describe how bad this is. I cannot imagine what parents separated from their children are going through or children separated from their parents. This is a crime against humanity, definitely not Nobel Prize material, Mr. Trump.
There is absolutely any shred of humanity or empathy about separating children from their parents, no matter the political spin.
This is Insanity.
Evangelicals “Stand up and shout out!”
What if it were your children being snatched from you?
I'm just waiting for Sessions or some other Trumpublican to suggest tracking those kids with barcodes on their foreheads. They are at a WalMart, after all.
Matthew 25:40. Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.
2
Donald Trump's shameless administration has reached a new low.
Immigration enforcement agents have been ripping children away from their parents at the US-Mexico border and locking them up in cages. Reports of rampant abuse are rising and one immigrant parent committed suicide.
We need to demand an immediate halt stop to this barbaric practice. Failure to do so will only encourage Donald Trump and his anti-Christ brigade to sink us further into a cesspool of moral depravity.
The heartlessness and cruelty is truly mind-boggling. In one case a baby was snatched from her mother while she was breast feeding.
Our standing in the world has fallen precipitously. No longer are we champions of human rights but have descended into a racist, bigoted uncaring society.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions not only publicly defended Trump’s cruel family separation policy, but made the preposterous claim that his actions are justified by scripture. Really?
Perhaps we need to remind him what scripture really says about the poor, “Woe unto those who rob the poor of their right and make women and children their prey.”
1
Separating children from their families needs to end now!
The United States of America is now kidnapping and abusing children. How is this any different than what was done to Otto Warmbier in Nirth Korea other than the fact that he was an adult and these are babies? If one of these kids dies, chances are that nobody will ever find out about it.
National Protest takes place Thursday. "Families Belong Together" -look for one nearest you and go. http://map.familiesbelong.org/search.php
If you work, there is a virtual protest during lunch.
Tweet. RetweetPass it on.
Are we now in the kidnapping business?
One day there will be a museum to commemorate the suffering of the families separated at the border. The pictures will show parents crying in Mexico after being deported for having attempted to commit a crime with their children in tow and children learning English and playing games in the US for a few months before being sent back or given to the custody of a family member in the US. How will the US ever recover from this genocide???
2
Japanese internment camps, slavery, and now this new "immigrant policy of separating children from their parents " will become part of America's embarrassing history.
1
What is happening America? You are so much better than this!
Is anyone surprised that with all the stupid moves Trump has made that he wouldn't find one to top all lthe others? Just watching him and his loyal morons in their desperation and panic keep saying over and over again that this was all caused by Democrats is proof of what I've said all along. The guy just isn't that bright. If he had even the smallest clue that this violent reaction to his taking away children from their parents would cause such a negative reaction he wouldn't have done it. But to be honest he does sort of have an excuse. He has absolutely no empathy, sympathy, consideration, whatever you want to call it, for anyone but himself. It's hard to understand the feelings that others feel when you yourself just don't have them. But have hope people. The Donald will get what's coming to him. I just hope to be around when it happens.
1
Please publish something definitive about how we can stop this atrocity! Letters to my senators get canned responses. Any organizations that are actually doing something substantive, instaed of stupid questionnaires which end yasking for donations??
Trump is committing crimes against humanity , and like Nazis , will one day be forced to stand up to account for all of his travesties .
All one can do is be active ,vote ,March,write and call congressmen and then pray to all that is loving and good , that this too shall pass.
1
Trump is a bully who wants his wall NOW and will do anything to get it, including committing the atrocity of separating children from their parents. He and anyone who supports him in this horror are war criminals. Lock them up!
2
Why is no one stating how similar this is to what Hilter did? Literally, using these words. Literally, likening Trump to Hilter and laying out the similarities, side by side, so the lay person can understand.
I've seen fascism raising its ugly, hateful head for years, now. That's what enabled a person like Trump to win. And, this is how Hitler did it, separating families, little by little until he had total control of his country.
But then again, four situations are aiding and abetting this blatant dehumanizing of our fellow world citizens:
1. The rewriting of history, in schools and elsewhere. Sadly, this will lead to history repeating itself;
2. The Pandora's box that was opened and now difficult to close.
3. The hate and prejudice that's been released is normalized;
4. The effective messaging that 'others' are to blame for all that ails our country and it's happening on a global scale.
When I read that the children were separated from their mothers, to be bathed - as in 'going to the showers' which Hilter instituted - I broke down and cried, and became very scared.
I immediately thought, where do I and others go when they come after us, those of us who dared speak out against this administration? Will the civilized countries resisting this plague besieging the world such as the UK, Canada, Germany, and all other benevolent countries take us? Take me?
2
If you are comparing Trump to Hitler, then I think you really need to read some history books about Hitler and the Nazi atrocities. And gain some perspective. To the extent you are trying to change minds, false and disingenuous hysteria won't change many minds.
8
The story of Ms. Enriquez made sick.. What kind of system would deport a mother without her 8-year old child? Americans my age can tell you immediately. It was the Nazis.
All of this bear the shame for this. It must be stopped now.
2
To any commenter using the word “illegal” as a verb: shame on you. You have just reduced a human being to an object and stripped them of their dignity. In so doing, you reveal your xenophobia and lack of compassion. “Those illegals” is the new N word, and you know it.
4
We supported a Dictator in Iran and we ended up with the current leaders as a reaction. Our actions in the Mid-East led to the rise of ISIS. Now we are creating a whole new generation of people close to our borders have growing resentment at the way the US treats them. God help us if in another 20 years MS-13 has morphed in to an ISIS like terrorist organization hell bent at destroying America. Not believable? Trump was elected President...
2
This is something the Nazis would have done. I am ashamed of our country.
2
We have become nazis
1
My CAT was abandoned as a young cat. He becomes distressed when I am gone for a few days and it takes him a couple of days to recover when I return.
No humane being with any sense could believe that a child - a much more complex person whose dependency lasts for years - wouldn't be traumatized by what is being done.
19
She brought her son here illegally to be with her boyfriend illegally. Not for asylum. Where do illegal immigrants get the idea that our borders are open? It came from Obama's open border policy. He put out the welcome mat and left it to Trump to clean up the mess and the crime. I went to Canada for a day and you need passports and are questioned. Why should our borders be a free for all?
30
Obama didn't have open borders and crime had been consistently going down, maybe you need to have a critical look at your talking points.
2
Are you referring to the Obama who deported undocumented border crossers in record numbers, half a million more than his predecessor? Or some other President Obama?
Try basing your argument on facts next time, why doncha...
1
Explain this Obama open border policy? I'd love to learn more.
You can't base immigration policy solely on emotion. The Obama administration did the same thing as Trump. The path we're on now is the establishment of economic refugee camps possibly of millions. Lets hope more rational minds prevail.
Even during the Depression we brought in legal Immigrants so there's room for them now but if we don't control our borders are you going to give up your job to someone willing work for half the price. Is showing up with kids goingto gaurantee a place in the country?
There's a lot of irrational thought about immigration and I guarantee playing the compassion card will only get more Republican votes. As a top FBI official called Trump voters pieces of you know what people are rightfully asking why illegal immigrants get more support and compassion from the Democratic party than middle class Americans are?
27
Care to explain why those fervid trump supporters fully ignore what is happening every day in America and find his actions OK?
There is emotion and there is inhumanity. This is inhuman and it is not a zero sum proposition. Democrats care about both working class people and immigrants. It is a binary choice fallacy you are reasoning with. Unless you are saying that children are being systematically separated from working class families based on a radical interpretation of the law and general malfeasance then your position is illogical.
So you are OK with using children as pawns to extort policy changes?
This is abuse of children amounting to psychological torture with potential and unpredictable long-term harm as a result. There can be no justification for what is being done to these families and the "Obama did it too" argument even if there is a shred of trut vto it does not change that fact. Another solution can and must be found.
The families can stay together any time they want --
outside the USA.
Don't come here in the first place without clear authorization.
Don't drag your kids along without clear authorization.
Guatemalans or other Central Americans jumping the border from Mexico into the USA who claim asylum here cannot seriously be considered as genuine asylum seekers. If they were, they would make their claim for asylum in Mexico.
Mexico not good enough for you?
Take your complaints to the UN and all the other international do-gooders -- not the USA.
Some "communication mix-ups" preventing re-unification with separated children even after parents agree to voluntarily leave?
Some, maybe.
But hardly most.
So, improve the tracking and communication channels to reduce "communication mix-ups".
But don't use that as a pretext to just open the borders and let them all in and then release them "on their own recognizance" pending endless "processing" and associated foot dragging by the asylum seekers and their "advocates".That's an open invitation to massive evasion.
Childen cannot be "processed" for "expedited removal" even after their parents agree to it? What an absurd rule! Change it!
24
The separation of children and families detained at our borders is unconscionable.
My sons will be alive to watch the future reparations that will be discussed in the unachievable attempt to repair this assault on human decency. We have fallen into an abyss. We are so much better than this.
1
They can stay together in Mexico.
The real issue, glossed over by the journalist and most of the commenters, is the situation of Edgar, Elsa's boyfriend. How is Edgar, an illegal immigrant, able to earn money in the United States and make remittances to support Elsa and Anthony?
Edgar's American employers should be separated from their children and jailed. Jailing employers of illegal workers would do much to prevent the flow of people across our southern border. The word would soon be out that there is no point in coming as there are no jobs.
Meanwhile, we need to work on establishing a new system for issuing visas for those foreign workers whose employers follow the rules.
26
The article never noted whether or not Edgar came to the United States legally. Additionally, that’s not the point of this article.
1
It has been documented that Donald Trump is an employer who breaks the rules in his construction and hotel businesses. If he is the first to be separated from his family then I am for it.
If there are no jobs for "them" you will need to pay higher prices for food or go without tomatoes, orange juice and chicken tenders. "They" do the jobs that we don't want to do.
".. Edgar, moved to the United States to work in construction .. He asked that his last name not be disclosed because he fears repercussions from federal authorities."
Admittedly the journalist ducked the issue, but draw your own conclusion.
Frederick Douglass (whom Stable Genius says is doing good work) wrote that the wickedest slave masters were the ones who recited Biblical scripture. Sadly, too many of today's American Christians are following in the ignoble footsteps of their antecedents. Therefore I suppose it's no surprise that Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (who back in the 1980s made Ronald Reagan wince) recited a passage from the Good Book to justify the separation of families -- an activity his forebears practiced back in the good ol' antebellum days.
And so here we are again, engaging in an absolutely foul practice devised by a gang who claim to love America while they go about soiling it. The only separations that should be occurring are Stable Genius & crew from the White House and Jefferson Sessions from law enforcement.
24
We should be immediately sending them home, with their entire families intact and inform them that they need to apply for immigration or asylum from the own countries. We should not be accepting them or allow them to game the system just because they were able to set foot across our porous border. This is the direction the EU is taking as a result of millions of illegal immigrants flowing in from Africa and the Middle East. Carefully watch the shift in Europe as Italy, Greece, Poland, Hungary, and others demand a change from the Merkel lead policy of open borders.
16
We can't do this. Its is wrong in the most profound way to separate families. This damage to children's most fundamental sense of security during a time already fraught with crisis and uncertainty is the kind of trauma that can overshadow a whole life and negatively impact their own children. This issue is separate from all debates about immigration policy. It is a deliberate cruelty and is unconscionable.
14
My ancestors came over here in the bottom of a ship and became maids once they landed. And from there they flourished -- just like everyone else. While I understand, "they're breaking the law" argument, I can't help but think, this is not our country.
10
Your ancestors were then.
This is now.
"But children cannot be subject to expedited removal; they are automatically entitled to a full hearing before an immigration judge, and their cases take longer to resolve.”
When a child crosses the border illegally with a parent, and that parent pleads guilty to illegal entry and accepts expedite removal, our laws should allow the parent to take the child back home with her.
Congress needs to change the current law that automatically requires a child to have a full hearing before an immigration judge. Such large numbers of people, including children, have been caught after illegally crossing into the U.S. that it could be months, if not years, before a child gets a hearing before an immigration judge. This means it could be months, if not years, before the parent gets to see her child again.
12
You are misunderstanding or purposely misrepresenting the law. Under previous administrations, families were taken into custody, temporarily housed, and deported as a family unit.
Since May, Sessions/Trump have CHOSEN to view crossing the border as a crime -- even in asylum cases -- and separating the children. Only once the children have been separated, do the laws about how they must be treated as individual children, not part of a family, kick in.
There's only one man responsible for all this: Donald Trump.
When has it been that the modern USA has become it's own worse problem, How are we not being Labeled as an abuser of humans rights? How are we still able to label anyone as a bad actor on the world stage when we become the nation of bad actors?
This is not the USA I grew up thinking we were. At 54 I have seen some odd things, and know how history is full of bad actions, But for a while ther we were supposed to have risen higher than our worse natures.......We have become the uncivilized. The bad actors,, we should be sanctioned by the rest of the world, maybe then some action can be taken to pull us up out of the gutter we have fallen into. This should not be the norm or even happening We get a good run up the hill of progress then slip slide down into the wasteland on the other side.
SHAME on you people that let this happen to other human beings. Love them and treat them fairly.
14
26% of Trump's base are evangelicals. Why isn't the Democratic leadership using this glaring immorality to fracture evangelicals away from Trump? That's all it would take to win.
And why do we hear from Trump every-single-day, but never from the Democrats? Are the low-energy oldsters still wringing their hands?
8
That 26% probably welcomes Trumps actions. All they want is the End Times to come so they can be Raptured with their Savior. Trumps actions certainly are heading this world in that direction so why not support the expeditor?
4
Actually, the DNC is constantly harping on this issue - and alienating huge swaths of voters who want somebody to actually care about THEM, and the economy of the existing middle class.
3
Zero tolerance, please.
Where’s the zero tolerance policy for banking fraud, climate change and opioid addiction?
Brown mothers and children are an easy target and immigration policy is an easy way to rile up the base before midterms.
Sure, the evangelicals are unhappy about it but Trump knows they’ll tow the party line come November.
Separating children from their parents is an emotional and logistical nightmare and a gross violation of human rights.
If you are unable to understand that, then understand this: [Conservative translation] This policy is costing MORE MONEY than simply sending the parents and children back home.
Further, using the bible to justify this inhumane policy is an age old trick that worked well in the old South during slavery days and throughout human history. Ole Master Sessions is just keeping the tradition alive.
24
Where is zero tolerance for dictator control of free country? this man has broken more laws than many criminals sitting in prison now. he has said he is above the law & can do no wrong & nothing he does can be considered illegal because he is president. Where is zero tolerance on tossing the Constitution on the floor & walking all over it with golf shoes?
3
This is horrifying. Reconnecting the a child with a mother who has been just sent back to her home country is a monumental problem.
I seriously doubt that the U.S. knows how to swiftly reunite families. This is very reminiscent of the 1975 collapse of Vietnam, when families were scattered across Asia. We were unprepared for the coordination effort involved. I was in the Navy at the time and dispatched to work for the Red Cross on Guam to assist with the effort to reconnect families. We received reports from refugee camps in Asia, organized them and distributed lists to camps on Guam. But the effort was hindered by frustrating problems, such as misspellings of foreign names collected by people unfamiliar with Vietnamese. Granted, the scale of the problem is smaller, but I strongly suspect the U.S. is unprepared and doesn't know how to manage this.
Once the U.S disconnects a mother from child, reconnecting them will be a major problem. There are so many things that can go wrong. I am sick over what is happening. Trump has a cold heart.
13
The slowly, evolving horror known as Today's America is causing a cultural anesthesia. People are growing more and more numb to the atrocities that our government concocts every day. I feel like I am joining the ranks of the disconnected and I hate it. I dread the news each morning. I read the headlines and shake my head and worry. I feel like I have no voice and never really did. It'll never get better. My children and grandchildren will live in a country I no longer recognize. I am 61 and have never felt more alone and afraid in this country.
22
My mother was separated from her parents during WW2. She was "evacuated" from her home in England due to bombing to a rural village where she was placed with a family who took care of her. She hated the experience - the family were half-hearted caregivers.
I never thought I would see the day when the USA, which considered itself a model for the world, would separate parents from children and deport the parents and leave the children in a camp.
11
"In federal court, parents typically plead guilty to the misdemeanor offense of illegal entry. Many are then likely to accept “expedited removal” from the country, in the hope of being reunited quickly with their children"
Can we get clarification on why this is? Are they being mislead, or is it actually worse if they don't agree to expedited removal?
3
This story is difficult to read. It puts a knot in my stomach and brings great sadness. People say that liberals and moderates need to be more respectful to those that support Trump, but how? How can I find any respect for people who take babies from their Mother's and tell us their god says this is right? What kind of god is theirs?
16
Forcibly separating children from their parents and breaking apart families is not about right or left, legality or illegality, open or closed borders. It is about the basic moral fabric of this (and any) country. America has failed, is far from "Great", and deserves condemnation for "policies" that result in suffering for people who simply want the opportunity to be at peace in unity with their families. Americans seem increasingly more interested in the law of claw and talon than in peaceableness. There is one future in anger: failure.
8
These kids absolutely should be kept with their parents as the entire family is returned to Mexico and prohibited entry.
10
If takig children from parents coming to this country at a port of entry is the rule of law(which its not) then the rules need to change. I find it absolutely amazing these people are all about the rule of law but they've never upheld and enforced voting rights laws, civil rights laws, abortion rights law, or the Affordable Care Act which are law. They've sought to weaken them at every turn. But they want to call this barbaric, inhumane, absolutely traumatizing atrocity following the law? A law that does not exist? This is a voluntary policy decision that is not backed by law at all. Hopefully one that will cost Trump and his Cult45 followers the House, the Senate, state legislatures and governorships across the country in 2018 and in 2020.
Republican voters who in the past couldn't vote for a Democrat and would vote for Mickey Mouse or Ronald Reagan? ITs time you voted for the Democrat. You simply cannot do that anymore with all of this going on before your eyes. No Democrat is worse than this.
7
Many of these children will harbor anger towards America and Americans for the rest of their lives. How is this Making America Safe Again?
10
I was just thinking of the large number of remarkably talented baseball players in both major leagues who hail from countries south of our border. Wouldn't it be grand if every baseball team and their executives took a knee, for the screaming babies of Central and South America who were yanked from their parents and dumped in a heartless American warehouse, during the playing of national anthem at every single game until these families are all reunited?
I will be flying my flag upside down on 7/4/2018.
6
And when these children become delinquents they will confirm Trumps comments that "they bring criminals, they bring rapists".
The trauma of separating children from their parents leaves them open to seek family from other lost children.
Gangs in the US are lost boys. Children without parents are lost.
8
If she can't live without her son why did she risk illegally crossing the border with him??
This is her own fault and should be disseminated in Spanish communities to demonstrate the consequences of breaking the law.
16
Why doesn't trump just use the military on the borders & shoot them as invading hoardes? No separation of families, no holding pens, no "fake news". Shoot them & just toss the bodies over the imaginary line that is the border. Let someone else bury them. I am sure that would more than please the base & give him more support as dictator. Use the bodies as proof of what happens when you try to come to what was once the US. Problem solved, right trump supporters & base.
3
If she can't live without her son why did she risk illegally crossing the border with him??
Presumably because the risk of dealing with our nonsense out weighed the risk of staying in their home country where they are subject to violence and death. Sensible immigration policies would be nice but it is kind of dumb to wonder why people would risk this in the first place and makes it just intellectually lazy enough for us to go on with a clearly inhumane practice.
How President Trump and his administration can propagate the lie that he is only enforcing a law made by the Democrats is appalling. Blame rests solely on the shoulders of President and AG Sessions. They must be held accountable for the suffering they are causing. My heart breaks every day at the child separation stories in the NYTimes and elsewhere and the atrocious behavior they document. It is time for all Americans to stand up and protest such cruelty. We also need to support organizations that are providing pro bono legal representation for detainees. American values and principles are at stake. We are all immigrants!
5
I don't think Trump sees these people as human beings with feelings. Trump sees them as LESS than human.
7
Anyone here have relatives that fought in any wars for America?
Remember some of the things they were fighting against? And yet - here we are in the US watching a political party create and - through their silence endorse, Internment Camps For Children. Let that sink in for a minute.........For all intents and purposes - these are Internment Camps created to hold Children - given no access to their parents - supervisors instructed not to pick them up or touch them REGARDLESS of how much that child who may be no more than 2 or 3 years old is screaming and crying for it's parent - or just a human touch for comfort. The GOP will pay for this - and carry the enduring shame for what they have supported during these times. This is the moral stance our brave troops took when they fought these very same types of inhumane behaviors by autocratic regimes and 2 bit dictators?
#BoycottTheGOP
14
Obviously the developed world cannot be expected to give refuge to everyone fleeing chaos, corruption, and failed economies. However there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. Can any reader with children imagine if they tried to find refuge in say, Belgium, and the Belgian state deported them and kept their kid ?
6
Inhumane. I can only imagine the pathos in those places.
Karma is bound to catch up. Its amazing how long a run it has been. From native americans to the recent Iraq conflict, to this - its bound to catch up right?
6
Reading the comments is comforting. Most of us Americans are caring and sympathetic, despite these bizarre times. Let's show this with out votes and end this aberration soon.
6
I think the people who are okay with this are the same people okay with a police officer shooting somebody to death because the person may have stolen five dollars. There's a law-and-order impulse in this country that's bloodthirsty, particularly against people of color. It's deep in the American DNA to be okay with horrific harm against people of color for small crimes. "Well, if they hadn't done X, then they wouldn't have their children ripped away, get starved in jail, be shot to death without warning, etc. Clearly they should learn to follow the law!" Trump's pardon of Joe Arpaio -- who literally approved the torture of immigrant prisoners -- and Trump's own full-page ad against the Central Park Five -- show that he has a deep affinity for law-and-order as an excuse for violent racism. Our country currently reflects the very worst of our values. Just as First Nations children were ripped from their families for decades to be "civilized" in white schools, often subject to terrible abuse, just as slave children were ripped from their parents, we are doing the same to families who come here seeking asylum -- people often escaping violent wars in their home countries. Our government is hurting immigrant children for no reason except that it feels good to white people to harm them in the name of "safety" and "justice" -- a form of terrorism born of racial paranoia. Only sick people want to pull a nursing baby away from its mother and throw it in a dog crate to make a point.
8
I suppose Donald Trump could sit back and look at his own children and try to imagine what it would be like, and how he would feel if he was forcefully separated from them.
But then, I don't this non-empathetic man would give any of it a second thought. He's a cruel and hateful man.
He only thinks of himself, period.
4
This is a dark stain on the history of The United States. It reminds one of the forced separation of black families during slavery. Have we learned nothing?
5
Was it a lack of planning or a lack of humanity? You plan for what you care about. The Trump Administration doesn't care.
6
How can this be happening in America? Shame on Trump and his minions - if they can feel shame, which I doubt. It is long overdue for those with the power to do something about this to get up off their tails and do it.
5
To be honest, I have not sympathy for these parents, for starters, they broke the rules of the land to come here. I am tired of hearing people say that separating children from their children is immoral, but this can all end if the parents don't put their children through this. Let's make an example and let wannabe who are thinking of crossing our borders think twice.
10
The world is watching America.
Time to send the Statue of Liberty back to France.
No doubt donnie will build a condo on ex liberty island.
6
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the U.S. to honor the shared democratic philosophy and political values - it had nothing to do with immigration.
The immigrationists have turned it into that motif because of the much opposed at the time plaque added 20 years later, bearing the poem by Emma Lazarus to honor her Russian Jewish immigrant family.
5
Beyond words to describe what is happening in your Country.
1
Terribly traumatic for this young mother and her child. Perhaps this publicity will help in this particular case. However, it is likely a typical tale of illegal migration and the true culprits - the construction company who hired Edgar who is probably also an illegal migrant goes unpunished. Until the welcome mat of social benefits and willing (unpunished) employers is removed, this flow will be never ending. We need immigration reform and enforcement for all the people knowingly hiring illegals including your maid and gardener.
10
If this isn't cruel and unusual punishment what is?
5
What is difference between Trump using children for his immigration goals and terrorists all over the world using children as human shield or suicide bombers ?
5
Let us not forget during WWII parents of a certain religion were separated from their young children and carried away on trains never to see their children again. Most caring people do not want to see that happening here.
6
This is how this man is going to run the country as the new dictator. Hold children hostage until he gets the democrats to come his way. If that doesn’t work, arrest the democrats for crimes against the dictator. If that doesn’t get him his wall & agenda, just start lining up opponents & shooting them. If there is ever a coup to overthrow the dictator, maybe someone will separate Baron from his mother, Ivanka’s children from her, & all the other trump grandchildren. Lock the kids away because they might grow up with dictator tendencies. It will be for their own good(?).
4
I have "Zero Tolerance" for this administration, and for the people supporting and defending it.
It comes as no surprise that trump implemented such a heartless policy. He called Mexicans "murderers and rapists" during his campaign. His "travel ban" was a transparent attempt to keep Muslims from entering into the country. He held DACA kids hostage, and used them as a bargaining tool. He denigrated African countries and their people. The list goes on and on.
When people continue to support trump, they support his actions as well. The fact that many people still support trump is what has me the most saddened about him and his actions. I thought we were better than this.
6
Shameful. This is exactly the outcome that should have been expected when we elected a president that is a disgrace to the human race.
We have the opportunity to change all this in November. Lets go vote and say NO to the Republicans. Vote them out off office.
3
Separating families is evil and has to stop. Period. And is the belief by some that by terrorizing economic migrants and innocent refugees and children we will "make America great again"? Are you sure that migrants will stop coming no matter what terrorist tactic you use, White-sheet bros? If you've taken their children, won't they come back? Wouldn't you? Are you planning to start killing people at the border next? Last I heard, we're an aging population that actually needs immigrants. Maybe if we could pass an immigration policy that wasn't racist to the bone, we could help refugees, help the people already here get an actual path to citizenship, have a functioning process for temporary work visas, and the nation could get tax-paying workers out of the deal. But then, what would Trump's base of haters have to fixate on? Obama will only take you so far . . .
9
We have to fight back against this new and horrifyingly evil practice of allowing U.S. immigration authorities to separate children from their parents. At this very moment, thirty miles from my home, there are up to 200 asylum seekers, mostly women, being held at the Federal Detention Center at Sea-Tac. They have been separated from their children, some for more than a month, with no contact and no idea where their children have been taken. I feel like we're watching a replay of Nazi soldiers and dogs separating families as they enter concentration camps. Legally, in this country, asylum seekers are not criminals, but that is how they are currently being treated by the Justice Department, as authorized by the Trump Administration. This antipathy towards and destruction of people who have no place to go is being played out all over the world, and now in our own country. It has to stop.
2
There are no words for the horror of what this government is doing to these families. Our politicians are inhuman monsters who terrorize children by separating them from their parents. And the parents must suffer the loss of their child. It's beyond despicable! How can the rest of us let this happen? We must organize and fight against this now.
10
#FamilesBelongTogetherForever
is organizing a nationwide protest for this Thursday. Check the map and see if there is one near you. If you can't go, there is a virtual one during lunch.
Not sure if there is a better # but pass it on.
We all have to DO SOMETHING!
3
It's clear from stories like this that these people are not "refugees." If they were true refugees, they would be glad to have their children safe in the United States, instead of returned to the "dangerous" countries they're "fleeing." One need only compare the circumstances of these economic migrants with those of true refugees: namely, the German Jews of the 1930's. Jewish parents would put their children on boats, unaccompanied, to live with relatives in the U.S., or to even be placed in the care of charities—perhaps never to be seen again. These are refugees.
10
The husband of my niece was a refugee from Cambodia. He came here with his mother and 7 brothers and sisters. He was picking berries when he was 12. My father's cousins were refugees from Yugoslavia after WWII. They came as a family of four...both parents and two daughters. They were refugee. I don't what you call yourself.
Solve problem by Congress and President designating nations as ones from which political etc. refugees may be admitted such as from North Korea and Burma. All others go to closest nations that are safe e.g. Mexico, Belize, and Costa Rica.
1
This heart breaking account, I believe, is the point of this zero tolerance barbaric policy.
At it's core, It's about inflicting sufficient emotional pain and suffering on non Anglo's attempting to come here so they will stop trying.
It's amoral and political. It's about satisfying this administration's anti-diversity; anti-multiculturalism; make America culturally white again base of supporters.
It's about turning border agents into a form of the KKK who, rather than wear white robes and intimidate by burning crosses and worse, wear uniforms and are forced to incarcerate children and their parents following a painful/intimidating separation.
And it does exactly what Trump and his administration want it to do. It sends a message to others who have coming here on their mind, regardless the reason. Don't.
It's stomach churning. It's not the America (although imperfect) I've know and love. It's Donald J. Trump's America.
4
I am worried about the soul of our country. Just reading through a few of these comments makes me realize how cold and cruel so many Americans have become.
Maybe we were always this way? Or maybe Fox New encouraged the hatred and racism, I don't know, but we are becoming a cruel and hateful country.
6
The Trump administration's new policy of separating children from their parents when presenting "illegally" at the border is cruel, dehumanizing and uncalled for. And he's doing it all for a "bargaining chip" with Congress to get the wall he said Mexico would pay for. Ridiculous! Here's an idea: What don't we separate his adult children from him? Let's start with Ivanka and Jared. They've certainly made enough money off their public positions that they can afford to leave the White House. Maybe then President Trump would suddenly find a heart.
1
The immorality and cruelty of Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump is alarming. I literally do not understand how such people can sleep. As for the Republicans in congress who are too cowardly to stand up to such a clearly corrupt administration, they should be targeted to lose their jobs in November!
5
Immigrants should apply legally. Rewarding those who cut the line (and break the law in the process) hurts those who patiently wait to receive approval to immigrate. A child should never be a get out of jail free card.
11
The policy of separation is cruel and calculated by the Trump administration to effectively stop Latin American immigration to the US. These guys want to end ALL immigration by brown people ("Can't we have more Norwegians?"). This should amaze no one; DT is an openly racist president. And the fact that the system is not properly set up to handle these cases of separated children, that their cases take forever to adjudicate, and that families are torn apart without a mechanism in place to quickly reunite them should also not amaze anyone. This is the Age of Trump, the Age of Cruelty and Incompetence. Ship of Fools.
6
This is an inexcusable, heinous human rights violation and a horrible stain on the USA in front of the entire world. Why is the UN silent? Where is the UN resolution of condemnation?
1
...and those children will be trafficked to adoption of the failed foster care system, thanks to Republicans and Evangelicals.
1
Your vote in 2016 caused this! Every citizen is in this together with the Donald whom you voted in as your leader.
Shame on the United States of America!
5
What kind of people do this? If you don’t know I suggest you sit down and watch Judgment at Nuremberg.
They should have, at least, sent her child home with her; this is an abomination. There should be jail time for the perpetrators.
5
Based on a lot of comments of people supporting this horror, our collective soul is just as diseased as the ones currently empower and those enabling these monsters.
3
This is about the Goldman Sachs class bringing in cheap labor so they can rape what's left of the American people.
If you think it is about anything else, you are a sentimental (and usefu)l fool.
2
Too bad. The American people do not seem to want to do the jobs in farming meatpacking and other unpleasant venues that the immigrants will do. So rather than implement a sensible government policy that would allow workers to come to the US to do jobs other than pose nude for skin magazines the plants close, the crops rot and we all pay more for food.
1
Glad to know our tax dollars are used to kidnap children. The US should be ashamed of themselves.
2
Dear Mother & Illegal Immigrant,
Do not attempt to or engage in illegal activity by crossing our borders without proper documentation. Hence you and your child will remain together.
Yours Truly,
Legal United States Citizens
11
If anything justifies impeachment it is this policy!!!
2
It's truly reprehensible that the Trump administration has "weaponized" small children and todlers in order to "bargain" aka coerce democrtats to give president Trump his wall.
When President Trump blames the democrats for a policy of separating children from their parents, while his own officials admit that it's "part of the plan" to curb illegal immigration, he shows that he thinks that the citizens of this country are both gullible and stupid.
This is truly an administration that has no shame.
2
We have elected a monster and I am ashamed to be American. I truly fear for our democracy.
6
If it were me working in that situation on the ground at the border, I would disobey orders and put the kids back on the plane with their parents before I would separate them. It's called civil disobedience and it's the right thing to do. No job is worth committing a crime against humanity. Thousands, millions, were complicit in the Holocaust because they were merely "following orders." I hope the people helping Trump out in this case are eventually put on trial. I won't mention in this post how I hope Trump ends up.
4
I am in tears for the second morning in a row. Heartbroken for these children and their parents and beyond furious with the hypocritical, heartless, liars that chose to implement this policy. These people crossing our border are human beings so determined to escape poverty and for the possibility of making a better life for themselves and their children (as many of our own ancestors did) are now finding themselves victimized by our government as a means of pushing through Trump’s immigration policy including wall funding. This viscious policy is inhumane and so unbelievably cruel it makes me want to vomit. Make no mistake, Trump, Sessions, (soulless) Stephen Miller are the evil architects of this “zero tolerance” policy, it is fully intentional and NOT them “following democratic policy”. This is America!! How can you do this to our (once) great country?? How can we stand idly by and do nothing??? What will it take to make this stop and hold those responsible accountable?? The emotional and psychological damage done to these poor, innocent children is unimaginable, and cannot be easily addressed. The ripple effect of the lasting damage done to these people will affect generation to come. Trump, Sessions, Miller you should hang your heads in shame and take a good look at your hands. They are smeared with the blood of children. How can you sleep at night?
5
This is a crime against humanity. Trump and his supporters have no conscience. My heart breaks for this family and all those who have lost their children. Get this monster out of our precious Oval Office now!
4
The only crime being committed is the one of “unlawful entry.”
1
Can't help but wonder how many people who voted for trump are against abortion... Against ripping the baby away from the mother...well... trump is doing just that...ripping children away from their mothers.
And please save your "But they broke the law! They did something illegal."
Look in the mirror.
You do everything according to the law, do you?
When's the last time you turned on red when there were signs posted "No turn on red"...or cheated just a teensy bit on your tax forms...or conned a company or restaurant into giving you something for free.
These desperate parents just want a better life for their children. If you can't understand that, you have no heart. :-(
[stepping down from soapbox]
3
Zero tolerance for Trump, Pence, Session, Pruitt and all of their fellow travelers! This corrupt, incompetent, authoritarian regime has to be separated from power.
2
If the mother was returned to her country, the child should have accompanied her mother home. There is no reason to detain a child in custody, if the parent has been deported.
The reason Trump loves Putin and admires him so greatly, is that Putin is a dictator who controls, abuses and inflicts pain whenever he can, on the people of his country. Trump sees his "other half" in Putin, because Trump too, thrives off creating chaos, pain and upheaval. It makes Trump feel powerful and in charge, instead of the insecure, weak minded individual he really is. Trump and Putin are bullies.
God help America.
4
A 1927 Supreme Court decision aimed at society’s “defectives” & “undesirables” gave doctors the power to sterilize people who constituted--by that they clearly meant burden in the form of tax dollars spent on programs for the poor or jails to house criminal offspring. The opposing attorney argued that “a small faction in control of government…to rid itself of these citizens” constituted potential for “the worst forms of tyranny” to be practiced. “A reign of doctors will be inaugurated,” by regular citizens working as arms of the state--an accurate prediction. Thirty-three states then enacted laws to sterilize the poor; Black Americans; Native American, Chinese, Puerto Rican & Mexican American women; & “troubled youth,” many of whom were abuse survivors. No one knows how many were sterilized, most against their will/without consent because they couldn’t read or were blatantly lied to. Over 100,000 Americans were victimized in this way; the intergenerational trauma to them & their families was profound. The sterilization policy—the companion piece to immigration restrictions designed to keep Italians & Jews out of the U.S.—did not end for decades & in some places, prisoners continue to be sterilized. We are witnessing an analogous travesty at the border by the proverbial “small faction in control of government,” in particular the lunacy of Stephen Miller, the aid to #45 who has a long history of xenophobia and racism. The price of freedom is indeed vigilance.
2
I wonder how long it will take the Trump administration to start putting barcode tattoos on immigrants' wrists, to more easily track them.
3
It is absolutely necessary to national security and Donald Trump's plans to MAGA that Republicans keep up their good Christian works. Go Donald, Paul and Mitch. Get those border babies. Until November.
This is the lowest I've seen America go. Under trump it will likely go lower.
disgusting and cruel beyond words.
6
The Trump administration has established the modern version of concentration camps. The first camp set up by the Nazis, Dachau, was set up during peacetime. It was not for jews, but for those who objected to the new administration: priests, journalists and "agitators."
14
Just finished reading INTO THE DARKNESS byGita Sereny. She described the process by which the Germans were able to identify and gradually inure future camp managers and murderers to the criminal system they established. The man she described, manager of Treblinak.was a good Catholic and loving husband and father. He was able to divorce himself from the horrors of the place by saying that he never killed anybody or supervised it and he was obeying the law.
It took about 8 or 10 years for the Nazis to turn German citizens into enslavers and mass murderers. We can't give the Trumps and the Republicans that kind of time. Vote them out starting in November.
1
We don't have a President, we have a monster in OUR White House. He is using these children as hostages in order to get his stupid wall. Not to let the workers hold and comfort a crying baby is cruelty at its worst.....it's heartbreaking. There is no law ever created by the Democrats....just made up by "t' and sessions. Just another lie one top of the already 3,000 ( and counting ) that we have heard from "t". Where are the politicians who can stop this madness. Our country is ( was ) better than this. So far his supporters buy into "t"s lies, but one day they will wake up...hope it's not too late. This despicable president has to go ASAP.
16
Why does he have to do this if Mexico is going to pay for the wall?
I don’t get it. It just makes our government look worse than it is.
Or maybe this IS what it IS.
2
It is what it is. Won’t be long before he asks Canada to build a border wall, too.
Send them all back parents with their children.
17
Breaking the law comes with consequences! You do something stupid something stupid will happen to you! Enough of this irrational, illogical and senseless dialogue .
22
I assume you are referring to Trump and his corrupt associates.
2
This is hostage taking, pure and simple. This is the way to get that stupid wall built ? To blame the Dems for this is one thing ,but Dems to let this go one to prove what a terrible admin this is? Election motives on both sides is terrible. Why have Dems started law suits and called for injunctions of this policy ? Is that happening? Have seen it in this publication? I am now officially ashamed to be American ...This is the worst thing we have done in a very long time
3
The question is - didn't she think about this when she illegally entered the country? Another tsk tsk sob story for an open borders policy?
24
You mean like the Pilgrims, all the other immigrants who invaded this land, many of them ur ancestors
5
I'm certain she entertained the thought she and her son would be deported but do you REALLY think she thought the US wold return just her and hold her son hostage?
3
Did she think the U.S. government would steal her child in retribution? Probably not. Civilized governments don't do that.
4
Congratulations, Trump. You're probably creating a new kind of terrorist. Just wait until these kids grow up.
16
There is NO logical or humane reason to separate a parent and child. It sounds like our huge bureaucratic mess that is inflicting pain on immigrant families who have great needs and who will suffer the emotional scars the rest of their lives. Until our bureaucracies figure out how to help these families, the first step is keeping them united.
It's a terrible disgrace what this administration is doing to families. Traumatizing mothers, fathers, daughters and sons. The long term consequences to these human beings is immeasurable. Trump shirks his responsibility as usual.
And Sessions criss crossing the country sermonising us. Total bigotry and hypocrisy from the party that claims to uphold "American and family" ideals.
3
I don't want to see this happening. The one detail that keeps being left out from all of these stories is the actual fathers. We just had Father's Day. Where are the fathers to these children and why are these children being separated from them by these women. Would like to see some of their stories too.
8
Fox omitted reporting young father who killed himself after having his young child torn from him?
1
Well, there was the guy who killed himself the other other week because he was so distraught when taken from his wife and children. How was that for you?
2
Perhaps I've missed the step where we are hard at work on revising temporary legal status so that people who come here wanting to work can.
2
The people separating families are those that are called law enforcement. And law enforcement members do things to people, including American citizens, that can be described as violating people's most basic rights, destroying people lives along with the lives of their families, and also outright breaking up families.
And the cruel things that law enforcement does to people is pretty much the same regardless of whether they are in red states or the most liberal of blue states. However nobody cries out over the cruelties inflicted by law enforcement on people, because it is understood that there is a need for laws and thus their enforcement, and that those who are subjected to the actions of law enforcement brought it upon themselves.
Yet for some reason when law enforcement puts their hands on people who commit the crime of crossing into the US illegally there is an outcry. That while everyone accepts how law enforcement treats American citizens who break the law, there is something sacred about illegal border crossers in that they must be given a free pass because they should have immunity from the consequences of breaking the law and falling into the hands of the law enforcement system.
8
You describe two very real problems, with two completely different solutions. I think the BLM movement was "crying out" about police cruelty, don't you?
Thank you to the 70,000 voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania who brought us to this new American low in such a short time.
7
Nearly 30% of latinos voted for Trump, so the legal immigrants must not be so sold on illegal immigration, either.
Our do nothing Congress continues to dither and blame each side for failure.
This failure is unfolding before our eyes. Sane polices regarding
illegal immigrant crossing into our borders must be addressed.
These desperate people are also victims of smugglers who give them a false narrative saying they will make it across the border without any consequences.
The border patrol officers are following policy. They are being placed in an untenable position. I am sure many of them do not like being characterized as inhuman.
While I have sympathy for circumstances for which makes someone want to flee their homelands,we simply cannot allow people to stream across our borders.
It’s time for our elected representatives to do their jobs and clean up this mess!
1
If I were to force my children to commit a crime, I'd almost certainly lose custody of them too.
17
I continue to be appalled by the off-the-cuff policies implemented by this administration...Is there no one in Washington who will stand-up and speak for these families? These policies are the result of the GOP...vote them out in November.
5
It says in the article that parents and children undergo different legal processes. It sounds like the separation and delays might be due to these separate processes. Were these put in place recently or have they been around for years? Perhaps the processes for children were made with good intentions but in the current situation, they exacerbate the separation. NY Times please investigate and answer.
2
I simply CANNOT believe what is going on in our country under this administration. While Republicans in Congress cowardly condone its evil inhumane policies, please tell me what are Democrats doing to stop it And what are we doing? Where are the massive protests and marches on D.C.?
5
There are actually two issues here. One is the wisdom of separating these parents and children; I'm one of many who feel this is a very bad practice. But the second issue is that if the federal government feels they must do this then they need to do it well. And although they're working hard to keep us from seeing what's going on in these facilities, they're clearly doing a very poor job.
Governments and nonprofits used to run fairly large scale orphanages and children’s' homes. But around the 1960s we determined that a much better solution for the kids was the system of foster homes we have today. Now we've been thrown back into the “children’s home” business. And again, if you want to do this you need to do it well, which means you need tons of skilled adults running these facilities and tending to these kids. And of course, one skill they would need would be to be bilingual. Yet what's happening isn't even close to this—and, as so many people have said, when you fail this badly it's nothing short of child abuse.
At least the evangelical and Catholic religious leaders who seemed glued to President Trump have had the integrity to speak out. But where are our Republican congressional leaders, who I assume would have the power to fix this?
3
Separating migrant children from parents who have been arrested is not a Trump policy; it is ther result of a federal court order. People who disagree with the ruling should direct their anger at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The 1979 Flores v. Reno Settlement prevents the United States from holding unaccompanied children apprehended at the border. It must turn them over to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which releases them to relatives or to sponsors. In 2016 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the settlement applies to accompanied children as well as unaccompanied children. The Ninth Circuit specifically stated: “We hold that the Settlement applies to accompanied minors but does not require the release of accompanying parents.” As a result, the Department of Homeland Security can no longer hold migrant children apprehended with their parents. They must transfer the children to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which releases them to relatives or to sponsors.
You can read the Ninth Circuit decision at https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2016/07/06/15-56434.pdf
16
The Ninth Circuit held in Flores only that the settlement document itself did not not require the release of parents, and emphasized at page 21:
"In so holding, we express no opinion whether the parents of the accompanied minors have a right to release, or if so, the nature of that right." A right to release of a parent with a minor child seeking refuge in the US would be found in their right to substantive due process, and also under their right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment under the US Constitution.
Some of those countries from which the mothers came, or other countries through which they passed (Mexico), or the mothers themselves (with help from people / organizations with means) should petition for the International Court of Justice to charge Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Jeff Sessions, and other members of the Trump administration with kidnapping, human rights violations and crimes against humanity, and issue arrest warrants for them. And also bring charges of the same in US courts.
2
Reading of these families and parents being split up makes me think of a sibling whose young children were (thankfully) briefly lost at a busy public place last weekend - she was absolutely frantic with worry, while they were deeply distressed and upset, in a scenario that'll resonate with virtually any parent or guardian out there.
As such, with the world watching what's happening in America right now, it's true to say that Americans - those allowing this to happen, and those cheering it on - have never seemed so cruel, and awful, and less like the rest of us as they do right now.
Yes, parents are separated from their kids all the time by judicial systems. And yes, every country has the right, and need, to police, patrol and protect their borders.
And no, that doesn't excuse for a second what's happening over there right now, and the trauma that those families, and those children in particular - which includes teenagers, now just the 'media-friendly' shots of wailing toddlers - are being put through, with potentially devastating outcomes for years or decades to come.
I honestly don't know what has gone so wrong over there; how America has fallen from being a broadly liked, or at least accepted, world superpower to one that triggers anger and criticism all around the world now, as it seeks to alienate allies, break bonds of friendship, destabilise other regions and now, even, to crush fleeing families with literally nothing but the clothes on their back.
3
Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller.
With Trump's indulgence.
Unless you think the "Build That Wall!" chants, filled with bloodlust, don't logically lead to precisely this sort of thing.
3
The moral to this immigration story is if you do not want to do the time do not do the crime. This woman, Elsa Ortiz, willingly broke our immigration laws when she brazenly came here to America. This should be a good lesson to future illegal immigrants that they must follow our immigration policy. When we say they will not be allowed entry, they must listen. Otherwise, this story will repeated over and over again.
It appears Ms. Ortiz's son, Anthony, is being treated nicely and is very happy. He should be reunited with his mother and she should apply to enter legally and eventually be given permanent resident status. That is usually how it works and why should she be given preferential treatment.
Do not blame the Trump administration for this illegal immigration fiasco. They warned those coming here illegally that they would not be allowed to enter. They are just doing what they told the illegals they would do and not allow them entry. What is wrong with that. Absolutely nothing.
If President Obama had given these orders, he would be praised and commended. The reason Mr. Trump is being so severely criticized is that they despise him and will find fault with anything he does. I voted for President Trump because I supported the policies he promised he would carry out. He is only following through on those promises. Good for him.
27
if President Obama had given this order we'd be criticizing it, just as many of us criticized drone strikes being used in populated areas around the world.
6
Obama’s administration deported more people than any other (by a lot). But this kind of barbarism was never the strategy of ICE.
I’m not against quick deportation of illegal entrants, but separating them from their children (toddlers, even) seems bizarre.
If deterrence is the goal, this type of policy isn’t going to help. So we should just chalk it down to meanness or even worse, racial hatred.
1
The hallmark, or one of them, of this haphazard administration,is poor to no planning. So this lovely young woman is ripped apart from her son callously because, frankly Trump cares for no one, save himself,and Sessions is stone cold bigot with his little grin.
I heard Stormy Daniels lawyer say his law firm was going to aid as many of these folks as he could, perhaps this article will aid in Ms. Ortiz getting her son returned before he realizes where his Mom is. She and the rest need legal help.
Anyone who feels nothing reading this needs some serious soul searching.
12
This is a National disgrace. America has now lost any moral standing in the world. What in God's name has happened to this country. It is not just Trump and people in our government who have brought this inhumanity and evil to America. The citizens who are supporting this regime of National Disgrace are just as culpable in destroying America.
15
Please publish the phone number of the “government hotline has been set up to help parents locate their children”. We can publicize the number through social media.
8
Just another example of the mean-spirited, amoral, bully the United States has become under the Trump Administration.
11
Are these the family values that I keep hearing about?
15
We have an administration with an alternative view of family values! Infidelity and disregard for kids is ok in this new universe.
2
For all non-American readers: there's something that you can do about this.
Show Trump that the world clearly hears his message that the US is not a welcoming place.
8% of US GDP and ~14 million US jobs come from tourism.
Take your next vacation to France, Canada, or Australia, or better yet, Mexico, Panama, or Nicaragua and skip the US.
While not a great outcome for anyone, the only thing that will crumble Trump's power is economics.
20
Many of the international tourism hotspots like NYC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hawaii, etc. already overwhelmingly didn't vote for Trump.
2
I'm just wondering how the illegal street gang members continue to plague the US yet we pour millions of dollars into seperating innocent women and children. Maybe hunting down the gang members and replacing them with people who are desperate to do the jobs Americans won't is a better idea?
9
Is it time for the US, with the agreement of the "exporting" countries like Guatemala and San Salvador, to set up processing centers in those countries, staffed with US personnel?
If those wishing to enter the States don't have visas, then they must apply for entry via the processing centers. Anyone appearing without papers at US borders is rejected immediately. This is tough but surely a fairer system than we have at present.
11
People who think it is okay to do this to immigrants have no empathy. First, walk a mile in their shoes, then tell us what the law should be. When law is inhumane law must be changed.
6
Parents who do this to their children have no common sense.
4
The parents should be charged with child abuse for bringing their children and themselves illegally across a border and with the awareness of what that choice brings. Parents and those who make this choice are fully responsible flr their own actions. No one forced them to pick the US over Mexico and their refusal to remain in Mexico fully discredits any claim to refugee status. It's a trully sad predicament but the US needs to take care of its own with absolute priority over those outside the border.
29
>>> "The parents should be charged with child abuse for bringing their children and themselves illegally across a border and with the awareness of what that choice brings."
Do you have any awareness of what the choice of *not* crossing borders means for these people, Brian?
From CNN:
"Gross national income, per capita: $2,150
"Population living in poverty: 60.9%
"Life in Honduras: As the second-poorest country in Central America, Honduras "suffers from extraordinarily unequal distribution of income," and rampant underemployment, the CIA World Factbook says.
Widespread gang violence fuels the instability and suffering. Criminals have extorted Hondurans into paying an arbitrary "war tax" for their survival, and those who can't pay often are killed."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/30/americas/migrant-caravan-countries-snapsh...
3
None of our own are being "taken care of" through this cruelty.
His point was specifically that someone coming from Honduras had to cross through Mexico to get to the USA. No one is denying the horrors of Honduras, but Asylum seekers are supposed to (according to most human right's groups) stay in the "first safe country" they come across.
So if I broke laws would the courts and police treat me any different because I had children? No! This illegal immigration madness needs to end. For those bleeding hearts out there, I ask them to take a long hard look at the impact unchecked immigration has on the country. Our health care system, schools, infrastructure, working class wages, and social services are greatly impacted by unchecked immigration.
33
Nobody is advocating for unchecked immigration. Taking the kids away from parents is the issue.
Leave the kids with the parents, look at their case, send them back home together. Or let them into the country. Just as it had been handled prior to Jeff Session's biblical decision in April.
8
Jim, the same policy is being use for people who are seeking asylum. That is a legal system and is exactly "playing by the rules. So I would like to hear you protesting against the policy that removes the children of asylum seekers from their parents at least.
On top of that, the argument that entering the country "illegally" means that the US is entitled to do anything we like to you and your family is so immoral and wrong. If you commit a crime you don't lose all your rights.
The reality of our politics is nothing will be done about this anytime soon unless religious / evangelical voters speak up for children and families.
Yes, make noise, and yes, vote. But I hope these kids don’t have to wait until the next administration.
2
I read somewhere that Catholic bishops were discussing a measure to take canonical action against Catholics working in the ICE programs. That would be something like denying them communion or the sacraments. Difficult to enforce I would imagine,but talking about it for the next several years gives them an out in the absence of any meaningful action.
2
This is why a strong State Department is necessary.
There are 7 billion people in tbe world, 6 billion of which would experience a dramatic improvement in their quality of life by moving to the US.
Unfortunately all 6 billion simply can't move here.
Before America became an Authoritarian Kleptocracy, we were a Democratic Republic and for the last 70 years the world's moral leader. We actively exported our system of government to the world by pressuring Authoritarian Kleptocracies to improve their own citizens quality of life at home, thereby reducing the need for massive immigration. A strong State Dept led this global mission of diplomacy.
Authoritarian Kleptocrats (like Putin) bristled under this undermining of their ability to mine wealth from their own countries and instead exported their system of government to us.
So children, welcome to the American gulag.
8
For 35 years prior to the 1965 change in immigration law, the U.S. enjoyed what it felt like to be a sovereign nation in control of its borders. Then, all hell broke lose and has unspooled with disastrous, predictable results over the past 50 years. Nothing changes until we roll back the yearly 1 million+ legal immigration and begin prosecuting those who knowingly employ illegals - who come here for the money and money alone.
9
You mean after 1924, when they passed laws to keep "my kind" out? Jeff Sessions still seems to think Johnson-Reed was a good idea to keep those masses of Catholic, impoverished, non-English speaking immigrants out back then. My grandfather spent his career helping his countrymen try to immigrate around the racist loopholes of Johnson-Reed while watching Anglos waltz right in due to their ethnicity. And yet, somehow, almost 100 years later, I'm here, their great-grandchild, a physician, child of two people with professional degrees themselves, graduate of some of the best schools in America, and indisinguishable from the masses of other "white" people, despite the distaste that there was for my ancestors.
1
To all the justice warriors who are condemning the president and the administration: Mr. Trump did not create the problem! Economic migrants have entered this country illegally for too long and gotten away with it.
Sorry, but Ms. Ortiz broke the law, and she should expect consequences. She was not a responsible parent, or she would have applied for a visa and waited for her turn. Instead, she chose to risk her life and her child’s life for a dream of a better life in America.
Had she been in any immediate danger, she could have stayed in Mexico.
36
The “justice warriors” are saying she should have been kept with her son during processing and deported together. Sad you think that’s too much to give.
14
That someone broke a law does not make any imaginable punishment to them or their children OK. Would you say "Sorry, if you didn't want your kid whipped and their fingers crushed in a vise, you shouldn't have broken the law!" Repeat after me: "Stealing children as retribution is monstrous, not moral."
2
>>>"Sorry, but Ms. Ortiz broke the law, and she should expect consequences."
A point to ponder, Rosamaria:
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”
~Anatole France
1
What is the quickest way to radicalize a population? Deny them their human dignity and hunanity, and put their children at risk.
12
Avoid it all with strict border control and immediate deportation back to the illegal's native country. This insanity of illegal immigration has gone on for 50 years, costing $billions annually, crippling now 3 generations of American youth and dividing the nation. It's also repulsive for tax exempt Catholic and evangelical organizations to advocate against American and U.S. laws just to bloat their own business customer base - which after 50 years is now more than 70 million added to the U.S. population at taxpayer expense.
5
This is kidnapping plan and simple.
11
So the government is charging people with a crime for entering the border yet allow them to plead guilty without a lawyer? Last time I heard if you're charged with a crime the government is obligated to provide you with a lawyer. Ms. Ortiz plead guilty in a criminal case that would bar her from ever coming back here. It seems the administration wants to have its cake and eat it too. It used to be people are charged with a civil crime for entering the country which does not require a criminal defense. Now people are being charged criminally but allowed to plead guilty without any legal defense. And the media do not even play this up.
15
Unfortunately kidnapping of their children is overriding due process concerns. Sad!
3
And stealing their children, and then encouraging them to plead guilty before trial. This seems like coercion.
Decent people every where in this country need to organize and revolt. The religious institutions should be the avant-garde of thus revolt. This treatment of families, mothers and children, nursing mothers and infants (!) is an utter disgrace and a crime against humanity. We should be in the streets disrupting the normal every day. Children are being traumatized. Who truly believes that the this evil administration knows or cares where these children are headed, how they are being treated? The chaotic situation is the kind of "opportunity" that predators are fully capable of taking advantage of--separating the teenage boys and girls, splitting up siblings... A true horror show. Being enacted in our names, people, in our names.
9
Immigration is complicated, we all understand that point. Yes, there were many deportations under the Obama administration. What I find offensive with 45's administration, is that they are using, these women and children as a bargaining chip, for their immigration policy, that was submitted as far back as 2017. This could had been solved, but we have a president who likes chaos and no compromise. Why does a country that celebrates democracy and freedoms, always goes to these extremes, because they fear another race, idea, religion, etc? There are Americans that always are ,"okeydoke", by these policies, instead of taking responsibility for their actions. I have many friends who came in legally, green card and asylum. Eventually, they are working on or became US citizens. US citizenship is complicated and expensive. In my opinion, I think Americans need a civil course on how to be a USA citizen. Right now, those families from Honduras, Guatemala, etc. aren't thinking about all of that, all they care about is survival.
4
Those are small banana republics that have been violent and corrupt for decades. The killers, rapists, gang members and politicians in those countries are the relatives of those who illegally sneak into the U.S. It is their sons, fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers and neighbors who generation after generation have wrecked those countries and made them dangerous. All the U.S. should do is take the billions sucked from American taxpayers to fund illegals and instead spend it on a latino U.N. of sorts to finally fix those worthless places, tack on the same perpetually broke down horrific violent Haiti, as well. All of these are Catholic countries. How about Vatican Inc. finally get its foot off birth control - for males and females, stop looking the other way at misogynist violence, and open its gold and ruby lined vaults in Rome to feed, clothe, educated and repair those places the RCC helped break?
6
I read this yesterday — it is so tragic, but I a frustrated by the media seeming to skim over another part of the story — why people cross the border in the first place. The general references are there — poverty, violence, etc. — but I don’t see the kind of in-depth reporting of meaningful stories and statistics that show why people cross the border alongside this reporting of what our government does once they arrive in the U.S. I don’t need to be convinced, but it seems clear that an awful lot of people (the administration included) are conceptualizing these border crossers as criminals, which leads to and legitimizes this treatment. But typically we don’t send people to jail if they are acting in self defense, hopefully you don’t get a ticket if you’re speeding and your wife is in the passenger seat in advanced labor — the public — especially the people who generally support the President’s immigration policy — needs to understand in a deep and meaningful way why people cross the border. Please tell these stories alongside the coverage of this issue.
8
Tragic and inhumane! And then try to sweep this barbarism under the rug by saying the enforcement plan was "rolled out with little planning". Pathetic!
7
Who's going to take responsibility when we have a tragedy in the overcrowded living spaces that the separated children now reside? With the numbers it wouldn't be unlikely for a child to die. It could be from some undiagnosed medical problem or from some other cause like an accident. In another situation a child could be abused by another. Without parents to protect their children bad things can happen and the odds are that that time will be soon.
8
All cultures have absolute prohibitions when it comes to abusing children. To violate the bond a child has with its parents is a kind of extreme psychic violence that can destroy a child's life. All religions decry this as evil. Somehow, deep down, every human being knows this. I'm not a fine enough writer to adequately express the spiritual reality of this soul murder; the truth is on the faces of those children.
8
Make America Great Again. Lose Trump.
11
Too late, America will Never be great again.
2
Am I really reading this correctly?!?!
And am I really sitting here, in 2018, in the United States of America?!??
“there is a very high risk that parents and children will be permanently separated”
Am I really living in a country that is stealing children from their parents?!?!?
18
You may ask yourself did he really win the 2016 election and appoint bigots and racists to his cabinet?
Sadly, I don't question that. I know the answer to that already. I guess I just think this rises to a level that is even more base and disgusting than the usual Trump cabinet output.
This is on par with past crimes against humanity like Australia's lost generation or the tearing apart of slave and native american families.
What is the point of snatching kids? Those kids are taught propaganda and made to join American military?
1
Trump isn’t to blame. It’s institutions like the media, including the New York Times, which have promoted and enabled him that are to blame.
4
Whoa, wait a minute - the New York Times is at fault for Trump's behavior? He acts like an egregious thug and you give him a pass - AND it's the media's fault?
No, I don't think so.
2
Boy-oh-boy.
If one did not need to vote this year, one has NO excuse now!
If dislike of trump was not so strong before, where's your reason NOW for not voting?
VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!
8
Since the catholics voted for Trump and are rounding up and pulling families apart I call on the Pope and Vatican to Excumunicate them all for doing this. This is not normal and will cause long term damage for theses kids emotionally. Very sad Trump wasn't put in jail yet for all his bad crimes.
5
The 2000 kids are being housed in circumstances 100% better than they've ever known: adult supervision akin to daycare, nice dorm style housing, 3 meals a day, school, outdoor activities that includes field trips to amusement parks, cable tv so they stay up on their 1st religion of soccer, etc... all on the taxpayer dime.
4
It sounds like it is something that is actively under discussion, as well as the less serious option of denying Communion, at least for ICE agents who are doing this directly. Not all Catholics voted for Trump- the Latino ones didn't, and I certainly didn't either.
Don’t cross the border illegally and there will be no problem. Blame the whole thing on Mexico...a country the citizens are, literally, dying to escape from.
23
No, let's not blame this all on Mexico. I know that Mexico is a favorite Trump and company punching bag, but the influx of immigrants to our southern borders is not entirely Mexico's fault. These people are also coming from a number of Central and South American countries that are either literally falling apart or are downright dangerous. Have you gotten a load of El Salvador lately?
Addressing the problem of illegal immigration does not, and should not, involve tearing children away from their parents. Simply saying "don't cross the border illegally and there will be no problem" is simplifying a problem that, for these desperate people, is not so simple. Their lives in their home countries are so bad and their daily existences so dangerous that they are willing to take the risk of coming here illegally in order to give themselves and their families a shot at a safe and better life. People in America often cannot conceive of the levels of poverty and violence under which vast swaths of the world's people exist. We cannot simply toss our heads, huff, and tell their governments to fix the problem because their governments are corrupt and aren't going to do it. While we need sound immigration policies, addressing illegal immigration does not mean throwing away our collective humanity in the process. Tearing children away from their parents is not the solution, nor is simply wagging a finger and saying, "don't cross the border illegally and there will be no problem".
1
>>> "Blame the whole thing on Mexico...a country the citizens are, literally, dying to escape from."
So, Richard, your argument is that we should "blame Mexico" (and Honduras, and Guatemala, etc.), but *punish* the poor victims, including children, who are desperate to escape. Is that correct?
Do you not see that your logic is fundamentally flawed and that the punishing treatment constitutes abandonment of simple human decency?
Trump loves Kim.
Kim has over 100,000 children, women and grand parents in concentration camps, because they watched foreign
movies or television programs.
Trump and Sessions are snatching children from their parents
as they come to America to claim asylum.
Kim's political practice is all about taking out any opposition,
Trump's political practice is to use racist practices to deflect
away from the Russia hacking investigation.
Both have autocratic personalities, and both are pure evil.
10
Trump's cruel and evil policy is destroying the lives of innocent children, and his hence men are doing what
the Nazi guards did, and they don't question the immorality of this hateful policy.
End this evil policy now.
End this zero empathy which is laundering white supremacist hate.
1
The New York Post states that what Trump is doing is like what the Nazis did in Germany, and condemns him
as these are "Trump's concentration camps".
Snatching children from mothers when they are coming
to America to seek asylum and safety is pure evil.
1
This policy is so ill considered and poorly planned on the logistics alone, ignoring the bigger moral issue of family separations and asylum.
The US has started Guantanamo Two with traumatised children held in cages. The only difference being they are not shackled and dressed in orange. However, the fact remains hundreds are being caged until authorities work out what to do with them.
Some humane welcoming system eh? Branded as unwanted with no understanding of what happens to them next, it's all reminiscent of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belson.
4
The inhuman behavior exhibited by Trump and backed by his rabid supporters is a trademark of the current administration. Trump built his career on racism and hatred of immigrants.
As an act of human decency we must all double our efforts to remove Trump and his Republican blackshirts from office.
10
Our nation is stained and will be so forever. Tearing children from their mothers is unforgivable. Sending a mother back on a plane without her child is something only the most deranged could even consider.
I wonder if the champion of this horror, Stephen Miller, has any awareness of the history which haunts any person of conscience, but especially those from whose faith he sprang.
These guys shame every man in our country and are not worth spit. We as a people will forever be noted as barbaric, no better than Boko Haram.
The so called men running this show, in their bespoke suits or uniforms replete with their hair trigger sidearms are truly despicable cowards.
Following orders. So were the Nazis.
This is the most shameful page written in the history of our nation during my lifetime. I am truly disgusted and embarrassed as a man and a citizen.
8
These people know that they stand a good chance of being turned back or separated, but they still come. Don’t they have to take some responsibility? Who created this mess? Oh, never mind. This is just another “successful program” given to us to now solve from a very knowledgeable... community organizer.
11
Sadistic, immoral behaviour. And Trump joyfully blames it on the Democrats. I haven't heard him use Obama or Clinton in this scandal-yet.
6
How can the American government do such a thing? What do they expect to do with these children? Are they going to jail them, feed them, educate them in orphanages which are essentially jails? And these jails/orphanages are a business operated by cronies of the government won in a bidding system? Is this all a way of making money and creating jobs? We are truly a sick country if this is what we are doing.
Will we keep these children jailed all their lives? Or will we release them to become a new band of the homeless in our country. Or will we just fly them to their home countries and dump them on the streets to be criminalized and to die?
The US needs to take immediate action to send these children to their parents. And what will we do if the parents were killed up on their return? These children are now our responsibility.
I am ashamed of what the USA has become.
5
Is this the face of American apartheid?
Apartheid is defined in the dictionary as a rigid policy of segregating and politically oppressing the nonwhite population - any system or practice that separates people according to color and ethnicity.
Would Trump's policy snatch children coming from Norway
when their parents are seeking asylum?
7
Would racist Session use the snatching of children from people coming from Canada?
This is a nasty racist policy filled with hate and vile
people's nightmares.
Zero empathy = laundering racist and white supremacist hate.
1
I am convinced that forcefully and deliberately separating children from asylum seeking parents, traumatizing both, can meet the definition of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Mr. Trump appears to be committing yet another impeachable offense. With the complicity of Mr. Sessions and the U.S. Congressional majority, he is committing crimes against humanity. Perhaps a new Congress in November will find the appropriate remedy for this shocking development.
3
Add kidnapping to the Trump administrations offenses. Prosecute them for it.
5
Do US citizen women who get caught up in minor, non-violent crimes get similar consideration? What about the wrongly convicted? Will they get to see their kids returned to them if they "self deport". Is it okay to jail a US citizen child for years because they swore at a teacher or wrote on a desk? The racism and discrimination against US citizens is clear and needs to be stopped, now, yet nobody not even BLM champions these families.
I remember the wailing and gnashing of teeth that forced the government to separate children because the family detention facilities were too prison-like. Now this same crowd is again wailing wanting families to be kept together. I will call these disgusting racist hypocrites out with their own words - 'We are a country of laws and prison/jail/detention facilities are the consequence for violating these laws'. These same people are outraged that some prisons in Illinois allow breastfeeding babies to stay with their mothers. They demand that infants be ripped away from their mothers. They won't even talk about the innocent kids who are gunned down by police when arresting people who mayor may not be in the house.
The human trafficking aspect of all of this is also willfully ignored. US immigration law must be changed to treat all people equally and true families must be kept together but along with this, US citizens committing non-violent misdemeanor crimes need to have the ability to be with their children. All children's lives matter.
3
Barbaric, mean, sadistic and cruel. What a message we are sending to the world.
The light that used to shine from the "City on the Hill", has been extinguished.
7
The people responsible for separating this mother from her child should be fired. Oh right - that's Trump and Sessions and they are accountable to no one. If these two men had any integrity they would stop the lies and act like decent human beings. Taking children as hostages is a new low for this president.
2
C'mon America. Forget your dear leader;Take the US Gov. to court. Surely any public interest group can claim parens patriae jurisdiction and seek a court order to reunite the parents and children on the basis that the regulation separating parents and children is cruel and unusual punishment, unlawful and contrary to the US constitution and recognized human rights standards.
While reuniting the children with parents you can strike it down. Forget Trump.
1
Good grief can this administration get any more disorganized? Much less more unethical, immoral, uncaring and cruel.
3
The children whose parents are deported while they are detained in the concentration camps will never see their parents again. How is the Trump administration going to track down thousands of parents in third world countries?? At the rate we are going, there will likely be 5000 kids or more in the camps by the end of the year. This policy is abominable. Trump is the devil.
4
Note to New York Times and the rest of the media: make this the top story, every day, every hour, until the policy is ended. If this is America, make Americans see what we’ve become. Disgraceful!
5
Is Donald Trump’s popularity still increasing amid all this hatred?. According to the New York Times and other leading newspapers trump’s popularity was increasing. A sad state of affairs that such a venomous Donald Trump still commands respect from such a wide margin of people.
4
In reply to RB West Palm Beach
President Trump’s popularity is indeed increasing. Those scofflaws who insist on the nullification of US immigration law are driving that increase.
6
Shame on the nation which recently celebrated mother's day and forever held motherhood as sacred. Are white American mothers more deserving of the honor. The cries of these mothers will come back to haunt this nation.
2
The real purpose for kidnapping these innocents could be a secret program of mind control, like Operation Artichoke or MKULTRA, programs run by the CIA in the Sixties.
They would need young subjects for determining exactly what age you gain control over the personality. How pliable is the toddler versus the teenager and for what ends?
Remember when Trump said at Haspel’s swearing in that the CIA would have “whatever it needed?”
Of course, this assumes that the CIA is an organization capable of the utmost evil and Trump is completely insane.
Nah, couldn’t be.
Consequences for breaking Title 8, United States Code, are severe. Let any and all wannabe illegal immigrants reckon with the ugly, inescapable probability of their family unit being broken up, perhaps irreparably. If ICE does not somehow address the influx of illegal people into this country, we will suddenly have several hundred million uninvited people here on the ground to feed, house and employ, people whose language and culture are not ours. Problematic is that tens of millions of such people have already planted themselves here to the detriment of our labor laws and standard of living.
10
This entire administration is immoral. They’ll do anything, use anyone, say anything, to get what they want.
7
This is terrorism, practiced against children. What kind of cruel country permits this?
5
This is a base form of cruelty. No government should do this, let alone an American government. No person who cares about limited government can justify this. The Trump administration is delegitimized by its own cruelty. We have to take our government back in November.
2
This will get worse. The reports of disorganisation and poor planning are particularly frightening when thousands of minors are being taken and farmed out to camps, badly managed centres and foster parents. Such a situation is extraordinarily attractive to those who might abuse children, especially sexually. I'm afraid that is extremely likely that before this ends there will be instances of child abuse, and determined coverups by this administration.
Does anyone believe that a group as hapless, ill-spirited and casually cruel as CBP, ICE and DHS is going to be careful about background checking? It's not like the behaviour of regular CBP and ICE officers gives on confidence in them.
4
A few years ago (prior administration) my husband and I drove to Canada.
On the way in, the guards at the Canadian border asked us about the purpose of our visit and any items subject to taxation we were bringing into the country.
On the way back, the American guard looked past me in the drivers seat over to my Asian husband. He looked at him and asked if he’s ever been to North Korea. He said nothing else.
The people we employ to deal with our border and immigrants are racist hacks. We should definitely not be entrusting children to them.
1
Why waste time condemning the architects of this heinous, barbaric, practice (Trump, Sessions, Miller et al.) and instead begin to think about humane immigration policy solutions. And please don't talk the hoards of demons that POTUS implies are coming - his oblique insinuation to stoke the fears of his base. Instead, a beginning point might be to look at this as a "foreign policy" issue and why spend yet another dollar fueling the desert waste, i.e., Afghanistan, and instead start putting some pressure on the governments of Central America to begin working with this Country to alter this sadistic practice. Since we have a stellar history of immigration reform why not attempt to look at causal factors (i.e., abhorrent conditions in the countries these people are fleeing) and start talk about sanctions and/or incentives for countries and governments that will work with us. Too much to ask, try continuing with the status quo - creation of life-long trauma and unimaginable suffering for children and their parents.
1
If Trump wants to deport those who enter illegally , than the children must be deported with the parent or parents . It seems they can deport the adults speedily but with the children it takes longer . this is insane , fix the laws and don't separate those who travel with children . Anyone can claim asylum by saying they are fleeing gang violence , spousal abuse ; they must be able to present evidence to do so . Stop the gaming of the laws by fixing the loopholes , we all lose .
4
Why are they doing this when we were promised over and over and over and repeated the campaign call and response chant, “Mexico will pay for this wall”?
Is this what he meant when he said Mexico will pay?
By extortion of their children from their parents?
1
"They'd had a plan." Step 1: Break the law.
Not a good plan.
5
Whatever the law may be, this is just wrong.
Do not make the mistake of appealing to rationality and humaneness in the leadership. Look instead at their actions if you wish to know who they are. Malice and cruelty in the pursuit of their objectives are self evident and will grow ever greater as they accumulate power and flex it. They care not for your humanity, sense of decency, moral values. They laugh in the face of the suffering, of others. They revel in it while weeping "tears of salt". And " the others" become all those not in "our tribe". History shows that the constituency of "the other" grows ever greater as fascism rises. If you stand not for the weakest amongst you, who will stand for you?
First they came for.... immigrants. Next they'll come for you.
15
Why would this woman drag her son all the way from Guatemala, through the whole of Mexico and look to the USA to keep her and dole out my hard earned tax dollars to her. Why didn't she seek asylum in Mexico or Costa Rica?
9
Perhaps to find employment, most likely as a chambermaid or dishwasher. Open your eyes; it's not too late to join the human race.
5
Yes. Any mother would do anything to give her child a better life.
2
This is unconscionable.
The only parallel in US history is the buying and selling of slaves till 1865.
Is it any surprise that Jeff Sessions a proven racist from the South is now repeating that most abominable part of our history.
Where is a modern day John Brown to stop these evil people?
9
When do we start removing kids from white families whose parents committed misdemeanors? Shall we kidnap them as well, take them to a concentration camp and lose track of them too?
Sorry ma’am. You were doing 66 in a 65 and your insurance expired and then you uttered an obscenity . Come with us. Don’t worry about your 18 month old and 2 year old, we have a good detention center somewhere waiting for them while we “process” your misdemeanor.
But then I’d guess you’d still have posters that feel that since she broke the law, her kids should be detained and separated from her. Right?
12
The comparisons by some readers here between the treatment of illegal immigrants and what happened in the Nazi Holocaust are absurd.
The Jews and others were gassed to death by the millions, some turned into lampshades and bars of soap.
These people are voluntarily coming to the US, most looking for an upgrade in quality of life from their home nation. Join the club. There are about four billion poor people on the planet with the same desire.
In fact, many of these migrants are using their children as leverage to exploit flaws in US immigration laws.
Allowing all of these people to be resettled into the USA, setting a court date years away that many never show up for is chaos.
Illegal immigration has been out of control for far too long, and with it's incompetence the US Government has incentivized people to violate US laws with minimal repercussions.
18
You have no idea why some of these people are trying to leave their home countries. In many cases it seems to be to keep,their children safe from the violence.
The point stands.
Any claim that what these people are facing is somehow comparable to the Nazi Holocaust is pure hysteria.
Come live in Escondido, CA and learn Spanish, Amigo - or Mayan. Then take a visit to our swap meet on Saturday, and you'll find out quickly about the true motivations.
Then there is the Google for facts.
Most asylum claims by Mexicans and Central Americans are rejected -around 80% - yes under the Obama Administration.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/03/world/us-asylum-denial-rates-by-nationali...
And don't we have our own American children who need to be kept "safe from the violence"? Have you heard of Chicago?
June 15th 2018 - "Girl, 12, visiting from Michigan fatally shot on Chicago’s West Side"
http://wgntv.com/2018/06/15/girl-12-visiting-from-michigan-fatally-shot-..."
Or how about NYC?
in 2016 Nisa Mickens 15 -and Kayla Cuevas -16, were bludgeoned with a baseball bat and hacked to death with machetes by MS-13 gang members.
https://nypost.com/2018/02/27/accused-ms-13-members-laugh-in-court-near-...
Where is your compassion for our American children? Shouldn't we spend our limited resources to help them first and foremost?
I am against illegal immigration. I also don't believe everything they say. However they shouldn't separate children from their parents. They should also be returned to their countries the same day so when they return everybody will know that they just can come in without due process.
To compare this to Nazi Germany is totally wrong. These people don't look like they were starving to death or physically abused. They don't like where they are living they should fight and change their government.That's how countries evolve. They were not stopped from leaving , there were encouraged by misinformation and unscrupulous smugglers making money on their backs.If we allow them to stay we are going to encourage millions of people to just walk in, create chaos here, pitting Americans against Americans.
We haven't yet finished dealing with millions of Mexicans who live here illegally . We are compounding the problems for our own citizens. If Americans are so upset about this, they should legally adopt them and take care of them. We have millions of children right here in America going to bed without food in their stomachs. Our priorities are to take care of our problems first. Most of these people are not refugees they are migrants looking for greener pastures tended by somebody else.
If they are refugees then the first contrary they cross is the country that should take them in . Most Latin American countries including Mexico don't want them.
9
Step forward with your checkbooks, folks, IF you want your TAX Dollars paying for this new policy. How does it save *anything* to be adding thousands of children, who should have been returned with their parents, to our costs of dealing with our immigration problems? This policy is 100% Lose / Lose for all of us as a country, and damaging for *everyone* involved.
3
A mother-child bond is so fundamental that it is inviolate with exceptions that may include fitness to parent, and criminality. Why cannot the family unit presenting itself to a border be maintained whether rejected or accepted into any country?
4
The article admits that this is just one of only several such cases. When so many people descend on our southern border, it is a great burden on our system and enforcement, so mistakes like this are bound to happen.
1
"Reunification becomes particularly difficult when a parent is deported without the child and is no longer on American soil, Mr. Sandweg said; in those cases, “there is a very high risk that parents and children will be permanently separated.”"
How is it not COMPLETELY illegal to detain the minor child of a foreign national (parent) who is being deported?
I hope there are aggressive lawyers in these people's home countries that sue for reparations.
Deporting illegal immigrants is one thing, but KIDNAPPING their children is something completely different. Trump & Sessions are accountable for this.
6
Well, surely it will defeat the point if children are kept in this country without their parents, left in foster care which 1) is no way to grow up and 2) costs will fall on the taxpayer. Sound heartless? Then let's ask first, why did this woman come here without going through the process to seek lawful entry? She knew she was breaking out laws when she took a raft across the river. Are we to feel sorry when our laws are disrespected? Her son should have been returned to her before she was sent home, that is the mistake made.
2
Thank you for bringing this story. It’s very important to humanise these victims, they are not animals or criminals. Just trying to make the best of their lives.
3
There cannot be a greater injustice than separating kids from their parents and vice versa. The trauma, depression and mental agony caused due to such separation to both parties cannot be explained in words. Either you accept both of them or deny entry to both of them. Being the host country, America has every right to deny entry. But let not separation be done. Neither party can live in peace. A great human rights violation would happen when separation takes place.
1
Thank Obama for not enacting immigration laws and reforming the process to stay in this country.
He left Trump with the mess to clean up which is being done under existing immigration laws.
This all could have been avoided.
6
"They had a plan", which was to simply enter the US and to join up with her boyfriend, "except it all went wrong" when they were detained by the Border Patrol. And so now she is back in Guatemala while her son is still in the US.
The question is who the mother herself blames this on, as the "plan" itself was actually nothing more than a risk she took, betting she would not get caught, while she knew there was the chance that they would get caught. And the fact is that like most people who cross the border illegally, she probably had no idea as to what the exact procedure would be were she to get caught. For all she knew there could have been a 3 year prison sentence waiting for her for breaking the law and crossing into the US illegally, in which case she most certainly would have been separated from her son.
As such she has only herself to blame for not at all finding out what the risk she was taking actually was. In fact it is fair to say that the US authorities went out of their way to treat her in the kindest way possible, and this is since finding the number at which her son could be reached was far and beyond what their duty required, which is to do their jobs and enforce the law and no more.
In fact it seems that once she found out her son was safe, she is actually happier that they were separated since this way her son will unite with her boyfriend and get to live in the US.
3
I was just thinking that nobody ever speaks of the responsibility of those great countries where these people are coming from. In Italy we are having the same, if not worse, problem and the "bad guys" it is we, Italians, if we don't do welcome 1000 emigrants a day or more... as we do in fact.
3
What is to happen with the children separated from their parents and staying here? (If the parent(s) wanted their child to enter the US -- mission accomplished. but does that child now have citizen status? Can children easily find and be found by parents? (How? ID bracelets? microchips?)
How often is this happening?
How can poverty in Guatemala be fixed?
2
What can we do as citizens to stop this? Call our members of congress? What more can we do? This is a serious question.
1
All in all I find the Trump administration shocking but this takes the cake.
The trauma this policy causes to families who are looking for a better life is unspeakable some may never be reunited.
I've always thought the Australian Government's policy on boat refugees to appalling however Mr Trump appears not to understand what he is doing is so shocking.
Geraldine
1
The vast majority of cases entail 3 to 4 weeks of separation. There can't be that many infants involved because the trip from Central America is so arduous. There are 2000 kids who have been separated from their parents. Some of the cases go wrong. But most go as planned -- 3-4 weeks of separation.
When you talk about separating families it sounds barbaric. I think separating teens is reasonably manageable for all. And I doubt the journey was undertaken by many kids under 5. So the biggest problem is probably kids from 5-8. Keep in mind that these kids are in the company of lots of older kids and maybe some friends. I'd say the 3-4 weeks for these kids is very rough but bearable. Nobody is likely to suffer irreversible harm.
Family separation has a purpose -- there have been two huge waves of Central Americans coming here with only a remote chance of being admitted. If they keep coming in waves and waves, more and more will suffer. The idea is to have the families here now suffer enough to deter further pointless and dangerous journeys. I have no doubt that, if this works, it will eliminate more suffering than it causes.
Ending family separation is likely to cause a lot more future suffering. The self-righteous -- like the reporter here -- are probably doing great harm. That's what happens when people think with their emotions instead of with logic.
5
You must have missed the part where an official said it was extremely likely the separation would become permanent.
She was referring to cases where the parent is swiftly deported; so not all cases. But that should NEVER happen. It is literally the least we can do to send deported parents home with their children. But the people in charge just don’t see them as human and don’t care.
1
What has happened to our country?
Was a compassionate, considerate government a complete myth that I made up in my head?
We didn't use to hear cases about immigrants being separated from their children, or being lost in the 'system'.
Setting aside the injustice of separating vulnerable children from their parents, just how are some of these kids 'disappearing' into the alphabet soup agencies handling this issue? In the age of instant telecommunications, computerized records accessible from anywhere and national databases none, not a single one of these children should have any doubt about their whereabouts, well being and status relative to the parent that brought them across the border.
I personally think it is a disgrace that we are treating people in this manner, it is inhumane, degrading, defeating and traumatic for both parents and children. Where is the benefit? I don't see any whatsoever.
I range from 2nd generation American on one side (my mother's parents immigrated) to 7th or 8th at least on my father's, and in all cases my forebears were allowed to stay together when entering the country. Yes, they were entering legally, but legal or illegal, all deserve basic things like dignity, the security of keeping their nuclear family together, food, shelter etc.
Once again I am forced to say 'I am ashamed to be an American today'.
When will this nightmare end?
1
President Trump's directive to ICE to separate immigrant children from their parents is heartless, inhumane and disgraceful. One action step that could have an impact would be for churches and synagogues throughout the nation to become sanctuary locations. In the past ICE has not arrested immigrants who have sought help inside these religious organizations. This action step could save lives and help families avoid deportation. And it would send a strong message to President Trump and members of Congress that the religious leadership won't stand for this.
If hundreds of churches and synagogues would take this action it would send a strong message to the President and to members of Congress to stop their inhumane treatment of innocent children and their families. It would be great if area clergy would meet to discuss. I would welcome the opportunity to meet with an interfaith council of religious leaders to discuss.
PAUL FEINER, Greenburgh Town Supervisor
http://groundswell-mvmt.org/sanctuary-101-how-churches-and-synagogues-ar...
1
So the mother brought her child with her while committing a crime. That’s child endangerment. She should have gone through the legal process of entering our country instead of choosing to break our laws. I sympathy for any child whose parent puts them at risk like that but none for the parent.
6
Our justice system broken; our mistrust in this government; a president who shows signs of not being of sound mind; a call is being placed to those who recognize that America is now 'Fear Country'; and it is to each and every one to understand that positive action overrides this 'zero tolerance' policy, enacted by this president's representative.
We do not need to revisit a page from history to know the difference from right and wrong. If Americans choose to hide behind the arm of the law affecting these children in transit, we should start on this journey of darkness, understanding that it goes against our Constitution and what constitutes a Better America.
Trump holds a trenchant card in his hand, and he can show an act of good faith towards the people he represents, by firing Sessions. We do not have zero tolerance when being witness to children being taken away from their parents.
America is not better with this administration. We have miles to go before we sleep. If a child is found lost in the road on our travels, do not go blind, deaf and mute but offer protection within the community.
We can do it, and it will require sacrifice to reunite these children with their parents. One day a child now grown may be asked what was America like when he reached our border. Dangerous, he will say, but some people were good and they surrounded me at the time.
America is only unique, if we place safety first for the vulnerable, and 'sham politics' go out the door.
2
Don't blame Sessions, it's from the top, Trump! He wants dictatorship, using kids not as hostages to get his wall for just one thing, His Maniacal Ego
1
The policy of taking children away from their parents is appalling whenever or however it is done but our outrage is selective. Daily the system separates children from parents due to poverty,abuse or criminality and not a whimper is made. America fails its children daily with the never ending cycle of poverty and despicable education choices.What happens to the children of the almost hundred people who die daily from drug overdoses? Millions of American children go to bed hungry daily where is the outrage about that? I don't agree with most of the policies of the current administration but objectively if you don't want to be parted from your children do the right thing.In truth if we reformed our immigration policy we could almost eliminate these problems. We have major industries like meat packing and agriculture that would grind to a halt if they weren't allowed to exploit the undocumented.Drive through many well to do areas during the day and make a mental note of who you see tending the children and gardens.It is not poor or working people who exploit the undocumented. If employers were fined or criminally charged for hiring the undocumented the problem would be solved.BUT as we all know employers will never be held accountable for their hiring practices when dealing with the undocumented.Sadly as with school shootings our outrage over injustice never last long.What about all of the children separated from their parents because of gun violence in Chicago???
3
The United States has always been a refuge - a beacon of hope - for those fleeing danger and possible death. This fact has been a key component of what makes America great. Now we snarl: If you come here illegally or seeking asylum, you'll pay by losing your child. Instead of offering an open hand, we bear our teeth, pack some heat, tear families part, and hope that'll teach 'em. There have been other times in our history when we've turned our backs on fellow human beings in extreme distress but in no case do we now look back with pride on our behavior. These periods, including the current one, show our darkest, most xenophobic side. Nothing pride worthy in sight.
3
Nobody is saying you have to have open borders or accept every application for asylum. But please treat people humanely, with the dignity of human beings, and please do not unnecessarily separate children from their parents.
3
From beginning to end of his campaign, Candidate Trump has been telling the American Worker and the American Student the future of immigration.
"I want people to come into our country legally. I want a big, fat, open door. I want people of great talent to come in, for Silicon Valley. I want engineers. I want physicists. I want people of great talent to come in the United States." 3 September 2015
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/trump-i-want-a-big-fat-beautiful-open-door...
"I want tremendous numbers of people to come in; and we're going to have that big, beautiful door in the wall. But they have to come in through a process, they have to come in legally." 2 Nov 2016, Pensacola, FL
https://youtu.be/k9macFldFzw
Middle Class Republicans are so full of vitriol to defend Trump's callous displays of 'rule of law' THAT THEY MISS the proposed reform that will open the US to a HUNDRED THOUSAND ADDITIONAL high-skill workers ANNUALLY!
Multinational corporations WILL BRING their people BY SPONSORING their applications. Trump supporters eat-up the daily "red meat" drama of a desperate farm worker; and are oblivious to the talented foreigners at Trump's legal door.
Trump's hordes of corporate foreign winners are going to DOMINATE the "The American Dream" job prospects!
WISE UP! Support the political party FOR labor interests - Democrats. Reject replacement of The Lottery process, corporations WANT TO SELECT their cheap, indebted geniuses.
1
Using children to further the agenda of no borders backfires in most of the country. Playing to our emotions to create a policy that is untenable is so obvious. There are two and half million children in foster homes because their parents are in prison for committing a crime. This is no different.
8
Maybe I don’t understand the laws, if they don’t want to give asylum to women and their children, why can’t they make them go back together, instead of keeping the children and sending their parents home? I’m not saying the borders should be left open for everyone to cross without going through the proper process, but to take away children and put them in shelters, while they send their parents back, is criminal and morally wrong.
5
The point of this policy is to deter - to deter adults from crossing the border illegally with small children. When strictly adhered to and properly publicised this policy without a doubt will be effective in preventing such dangerous crossings and will safe many lives in the long term. The same as Australian policy of offshore processing and banning from coming to Australia the illegal migrants caught at see was 100% effective in stopping the boats and saving hundreds of lives which were being lost at sea before adoption of that policy. No children will be separated from their parents, because no children will be crossing the border illegally with their parents. Period. That is the only proper and humane thing to do. Just don't come, don't break the law. Or at the very least, when you do, don't bring your children with you. That is very simple really.
10
I have been wondering who is overseeing each detention center? Are the people supervising the children being properly vetted with background checks? Do they have experience with childcare? Something like this incident was bound to happen. This is a foolhardy and costly approach to the issue of immigration. It is a sad time for all. Hard-hearted Stephen Miller needs to go. His parents should call him home for retraining and a history lesson of his own grandparents stories of migration and why folks uproot their lives to leave their homelands to go to a strange, unfriendly country.
I was interested in this because I feel like I can connect to this in a personal level but that this could happen to me and this would destroy me. I’m a 15 year old in high school working hard so that I can give back to my mom that has worked so hard to raise my siblings and I. I have thought about what it would be like without her and it would be absolutely terrible. I wish that I wouldn’t have to live with the fear of losing my mother at any moment.
8
Eduardo, your comment is the most important one here. Thank you for making it. You are the kind of person who can truly make America great, with your compassion, tenderness and belief in justice. Your parents must be proud.
To anyone who minimizes the obscene cruelty of this policy by suggesting "they deserve it," imagine that your child was forcibly taken from you, that you knew he was desperately suffering, looking for you and taking this abandonment deep into his soul for the rest of his life.
The only voices that matter here are the voices of the children. Thank you, Eduardo, for speaking for those who cannot.
Yes, American children are indeed separated from a parent when he or she is jailed, but this is a false “what about ism” Trump apologists are advancing. In most cases, American children of parents accused or convicted of unlawful conduct are living in their home community, and courts work with social services to have another parent, relative or family friend to care for them. In the worst case, they are placed with a foster family that is vetted and monitored by social service agencies (abuse is no stranger to these arrangements, but the system is set up with the goal of protecting the child). Donald Trump and those he chooses to hire and admire seem to despise anything kind, good or vulnerable. Trump and team are tormenting innocent children and their families to get his border wall, and history will condemn them and their enablers for this gratuitous cruelty.
4
If morality plays no part in the Trump Administration's application of "deterrence", why stop at separating children from their families? Why not just "shoot to kill" at the boarder? After all, the "they broke the law" justification would be equally valid in that case, wouldn't it?
And why, in particular, is this part of the law the one that Trump, his advisers, and Sessions decide to enforce with "zero tolerance"? Is it because if other laws were enforced with the same vigor, e.g. emoluments, incitement, pay-to-play, collusion, the Constitution, etc, most of the GOP would be in jail right now?
Their whole approach makes as much sense as Steve Martin's comedic suggestion that over-population could be easily solved by enforcing a, "Death penalty for parking violation". The sheer absurdity of Martin's suggestion is what makes it funny. Whereas the sheer absurdity of Trump actions makes it, not only not funny, but immoral.
This "selective enforcement" is mirrored in Jeff Sessions use of a Bible verse as justification for this moral penury. A verse which, not-so-coincidentally, has been repeatedly used throughout the years to justify the worst examples of "man's inhumanity to man".
We see time and again that the GOP is all for "zero tolerance" for others, but not themselves. They are all for quoting Bible verses, but, not the ones that would condemn their actions, as those would probably constitute the vast majority of the Bible. And the entirety of everything Jesus taught.
4
It sounds as though the Trump administration is holding these children (and their trauma) hostage. Trump's pinning of the family separation policy on "Democrats" at once employs his favorite strategy -- projection -- and functions as Trumpspeak for "do what I say [i.e. pass immigration 'reform' that funds the border wall and further defines non-whites as incapable of becoming *real* Americans] & no one gets hurt". "The Democrats can change this if they want to" is a statement of coercion and threat, employed by the ultimate mafia boss.
Finally, Trump is successfully consolidating the power to shape reality through proclamation, smoke and (media) mirrors -- his dictatorial instincts are on full display, and at their peak.
2
These illegal immigrants are using emotional blackmail to get what they want, which is entry into into the United States without the burden of fulfilling legal immigration requirements. Responsible immigrants first obtain some kind of work visa, enter the United States, faithfully fulfill the terms of their work visa, apply for a green card after their work visa has expired, remain in place at that job and patiently wait for their application to go through the federal bureaucracy. In my case the wait took about 18 months.
6
John Murray, just curious, where did you come from. A first world country or a crime ridden, corrupt third world country run by thugs.
Yeah, I've heard the totally unsympathetic "I/we did it legally" before. This presupposes a level of wealth, education and time others may not have.
Get off your high horse. The behavior of this government is totally unacceptable.
4
In reply to Debbie New Jersey
I will indeed “get off my high horse” as you so eloquently suggest, when I vote Republican this November and in November 2020. I fully believe that the many patriotic Americans who join me will outnumber you and your friends, and that President Trump will be stepping down in January 2025. See you at the voting booth!
Trump wants everyone to experience the childhood that he had - one without love and kindness.
5
To those of you who say these people deserve what they ‘re getting, I would say walk a mile in their shoes. Imagine your children being taken away from you. Imagine trying to escape violence and economic despair. We have a president who never experienced empathy: we the people should. America would not exist without it.
6
Sessions and Trump has a zero tolerance policy for the children coming over our borders.
I want a zero tolerance for Wall Street Banks that break tens of millions of fraud laws with zero jail time.
How can justice be so very far apart?
14
I am ashamed of my country. This is the great United States I became a citizen of, full of hope in a constant search to redress injustice and compassion. It is now becoming one of the immoral persecutory countries of the world.
5
It is chilling to see the photos of the children in cages in an unused WalMart in Texas! There is no moral compass in this administration. Separating children from their parents who are seeking asylum is the real crime. These detentions in such conditions must stop.
4
There's a simple solution: Don't enter, or attempt to enter, countries illegally.
4
The US is a big rich country; it should welcome all refugees and grant them citizenship.
1
This is what Trump promised, this is what the Electoral College voted for and this is the President America got (and maybe deserves) because of its racism and nativism and prejudice. Those who didn't vote at all cannot now be upset that he was elected; you left the field wide open for Trump and his crooked Republican Party to walk right in and grab the country. You all deserve whatever he gives you. Don't come crying to those who did vote for the sane alternative. America and Trump have become a disgrace, but maybe there will be salvation in November and in 2020. However that would require everyone who has a brain cell left in their heads to go out and vote. I don't know if Americans have the wherewithall. Let's see.
11
You are so right about this. What many are failing to recognize is that a great deal of the outrage on the right is Fake Outrage. Law and Order Sessions believe if his policies are so Draconian he will discourage people with kids to not try to cross our borders. Sessions is going to be Sessions but the tepid feigned outrage of the Right is repugnant.Trump has succeeded in putting the Fear of God in the hearts of The Right and none but those exiting have a little metal in their spine.Trump and his Lemming can only be stopped at the ballot box
This is a horror show. So we're not only ripping children from their parents, putting them in chain-link enclosures, and "losing" them in the system, but also deporting parents without them? It just keeps getting worse and worse. If the administration supports this abhorrent cruelty, what won't they support? Shame on them!
13
President Trump, please take ownership of this!!!
Also, please fire Attorney General Sessions and Steve Miller!
5
The White House has become brutal!
4
This is sad. They should stop them as families, and deporr them as families
3
I'm ashamed for the United States of America today.
10
Did we come to this because you kept covering Hillary's emails? You didn't bother to investigate what a corrupt, amoral man Trump had been all his life? There are sins, and then there are mortal sins - you couldn't differentiate. Review, repent and fire.
6
I have no printable words for Trump, Steve Miller, Jeff Sessions and their ilk. What is wrong w this country that we allow such disgraceful actions? Pure evil.
9
She chose to expose her son to this, the fault lays squarely on her shoulders.
Don't break our laws
3
I'm sure you feel the same way about elected officials who break the laws too. They must pay the price.
1
So the answer to people desperate for safety is to destroy a child’s life forever by losing them? Two wrongs don’t make a right!
trump should be prosecuted before the World Court for destruction of children and their families!
1
No. She chose to attempt safety from violence. And if that could not come to pass, then deport them together.
The real criminal is a president who would throw children away like trash and think this is how human beings should be treated.
1
The biggest villains of all—who are committing daily multiple outrages against this country that are far greater and far more consequential than the misdemeanors of powerless, vulnerable refugees—are the ones in this truly evil, destructive, lying, incompetent administration. Those of us in majority of U.S. citizens who are against Trump—along with every single Democratic legislator—must turn our fury on him and his collaborators and enablers and demand zero tolerance for any more of their lawless, immoral, anti-American degradations and scandals, before it's too late.
4
This must stop now. It is Trump ordering the torture of children.
12
Let's hear the argument in favor of sneaking into the country.
3
The trump doctrine: "Make America Evil."
2
Nuremberg trials. This conduct rises to that level.
9
We are tolerating a man who says he has zero tolerance for people who brake the law . Mr Trump do you know anyone who has broken the laws more than you?
6
While he defends Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort & Michael Cohen.
1
While the idea of separation of parents from their children is something many Americans feel is inhumane, what is actually happening is not a deliberate act of separating them for that express purpose, but is instead the result of taking the parent into custody.
And the reason they are taken into custody is that after years of giving people court dates to which they never showed up it was decided to keep them in custody until their case is resolved. And there are few Americans who would argue that the way things used to be done, giving them a court date and trusting them to return so that they can face deportation worked.
And so if the parents are taken into custody despite the outcry over seperating children from their parents nobody is suggesting that the children be locked up along with their parents in an adult detention facility.
So to all of those who cannot bear the fact that children are being separated from their parents, pray tell what should the government do with children whose parents are taken to be locked up in an adult detention facility. Or as in this case where there are different rules about how to deal with children and adults who come to claim asylum.
12
Nice try but politically myopic. The solution is simple. Don't charge asylum seekers with a crime. Problem solved
If you’ve entertained the US illegally, you’ve committed a crime. If you try to claim asylum after entering illegally, you’ve still committed the crime.
I am ashamed of my country and horrified at the inhumanity which is apparently fine with Trump, his cabal and millions of Trump voters.
20
The wall needs to be built. Kids shouldn't be separated from their parents. Both should be deported immediately-the same day they are discovered to be here illegally. We shouldn't be spending any money housing these people in this country.
65
Weren’t you chanting that Mexico will pay for a wall?
6
I agree because we need to spend that money on flying President Trump to his golf course every weekend.
4
Depends what you call illegal. Saw a program last night when a man who has lived and worked and paid taxes in the US for over 40 years and is legally a US citizen and brought up his family was arrested and deported because he has misdemeanour for domestic violence many years ago. What is fair about that pretty sure there are thousands of people who have the same misdemeanour only difference is some were born in the US so they get to stay.
2
Child snatching. Maybe there are lots of republicans
and Trump relatives who want to adopt these
children.
27
Or use them, more likely.
2
The Trump administration has become a terrorist cell. This is terror like Boko Haram stealing children from schools by the hundreds. ICE and border patrol are stealing children from borders and from people's homes.
89
Actually, this is not a big deal from a government that has terrorized the world for decades, dumping thousands of tons of flaming steel on kids around the world. Both Democrats and Republicans use horrific destruction to make the world safe for American consumer capitalism.
We block that out because it doesn't fit with our myth, the Good America self-image.
There is a name for this: kidnapping
54
Illegal immigrants entering the southern border with a child may indeed be kidnappers.
1
I think we should all agree that if the country is no longer accepting immigrants, then we should send the family back, UNITED, to their respective countries. Stealing the children as punishment, and then losing them yet, makes us no better than a banana republic enduring the curse of dictators. Is that who we are?
102
Yes, that’s who we are.
I'm sorry about Ms. Órtiz Enríquez's plight. I'm confident her family will be reunited soon.
Meanwhile . . .
1. Adults in families who are caught entering without inspection are committing misdemeanors. I wouldn't mind if we had a system in which Mexican families (see item 2 below) can be kept together in jail. The Anglo-American legal system historically hasn't done that, but we ought to reconsider it in immigration cases. In the interim, although the Trump/Sessions attitude is hard-line, I can't condemn these detentions as some sort of Kafkaesque abuse.
2. I am annoyed by the inadequate reporting and commentary that lambastes the detention of families coming from countries other than Mexico. Under international law, you must apply for asylum or refugee status in the first safe country you reach—not your preferred (rich) country of choice, like the U.S. or Canada. Although areas of Mexico strike me as amounting to a failed state, other areas are safe. People coming from countries south of Mexico (or any country other than Mexico) should be turned back at the Mexican border for that reason, whether or not they request asylum or refugee status.
3. U.S. law allows people to apply for asylum only "on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion." Having an abusive spouse or being in a dangerous neighborhood isn't enough. Otherwise, given the horrors south of Tijuana, we'd have to admit tens of millions.
75
Thank you for your comment. You have answered the questions I've had on this.
1
This is wrong.
Everything about it is wrong.
At what point do we wrestle back the conscience of who we are as a country?
40
Evil, pure evil, brought to you by Trump, Sessions, Kelly, Miller, Sanders, Nielsen, Melania, and every other member of the GOP who bears witness to this horror and accepts it. Using children as leverage is beyond deplorable. Anyone have a word for it that is printable?
61
I just thought of Dante's The Inferno. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the "realm ... of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen".
A mean-spirited, angry faux-Christian patriarchy now rules the USA. Children sit and wait in cages. Overhead lighting stays on 24 hours a day. Kids care for kids.
Republicans shamefully silent and absent until Democrats show up in Texas. Trump administration claims their policy is biblical. But truth is it's deplorable.
UN says US must stop separating migrant children from parents. Trump's policy is ‘unlawful and violates rights of the child." Rumor is an angered Trump will pull out of the UN.
(Of course.)
Voters realize they really did elect a reality game show host clueless about the law, the presidency, ethics or governance
whose scandals continue to mount with each passing day.
83
Her trip north is not about asylum. It is about a better life in the US which hundreds of millions would like. We must deport but there must be due process and a lack of cruelty. A court case precluded locking up the children as they must have the least restrictive environment. The parents must be detained as a significant number otherwise disappear and do not comply with requirements to show up in court.
But the children must be returned with the parents upon deportation and while in custody must be cared for with compassion and touching for decency's sake.
39
I should think not only because children require the least restrictive environment, but should not be housed with families which include men. The risk of predation by men is simply too great, and even the most devoted mother cannot keep awake 24/7 to ensure her child/ren is safe.
Where is the voice of those governments from which the immigrants originated ? How can a foreign government allow their minor citizens to be held captive in a foreign country ? What sense does it make to repatriate the parents but not the children at the same time ? When did the US establish that they make take over someone's children with no legal recourse ? The potential for abuse, child exploitation , trauma and such is already enough to throw this policy into a nightmare of human rights violations among other things. Insane.
27
Where are the voices of those governments whose children are taken from parents in their country, marched across Mexico and used as a tactic to enter the United States with a child to game the system? How can the United States know that an illegal immigrant is the parent of an accompanying child?
1
I always wondered how Germans let the Nazis do atrocities. Was it sudden horror or was it gradual? If the latter, then we're inching closer.
We read the news. Get horrified. Outraged. But only supposedly. Because then we continue on living and do nothing...
90
Meanwhile people died in a high speed chase with border patrol, something they say happens daily. We now how a group of storm troopers running around the country eagerly engaging in situations that are endangering the population at large. It's disturbing that they can find so many people happy to act like the SS.
36
The fault is with the smugglers and not the Federal government.
4
No! We now have a government which the majority of us did not vote for, acting like a gang of thugs. You approve of torture of children. What punishment do you enforce for those in upscale clothing who approve of ignoring current immigration law!
1
Paulie, I want to make sure I understand.
"Every day there is a high speed chase at the border and people die." This is the claim.
Have you ever walked the border? Its a generally quiet and peaceful place. Well guarded. Take that back. Very well guarded. There are malls and golf courses and parks butted up to the border. There are Huge swaths of desert. And cities. And roads. And People.
High speed chases? C'mon. Less then most cities.
The Trump administration is taking children from their parents as a policy of systematic torture to deter human migration. A policy of torture is a crime against humanity and at the least Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, Stephen Miller, Kirstjen Nielsen, and all the personnel in Home Land Security who carry out their orders, should be charged with those crimes at the International Court of Justice!
60
I am now 70 years old. As an Eagle Scout we were taught different values. I have lived by that code ever since. Trump couldn't make Cub scout. I am appalled to see the actions of our so called "leaders". Apparently they didn't get their Civics merit badge. I knew more about behavior than Trump and associates are exhibiting at the age of 14 than they are showing when they should know what real men and women should know intuitively. We have trusted them with the highest offices in the land. Read what it says on the Statue of Liberty. I am ashamed to admit that these are my heads of state. Remove them. Father's day no less. Superficial, selfish vulgarians. Lead from the gut indeed. Methinks it's the pocketbook with a bit of race thrown in.
54
Well, we can't run a government based on Cub Scout values of 70 years ago.
The world is a dangerous place.
2
Why can’t we play the long game here? Involve ourselves in Central American counties (mainly Guatemala and Honduras) in a way that actually helps these counties uplift their outlook, accountability, recourses and gang approach? If these counties can develop constructive and non-corrupt governments then this will benefit us as well! The money spent would be paid back in huge dividends. Adam Schiff was saying this very thing on Meet the Press this morning. Though conservative’s general philosophy will prohibit any meaningful action on this part.
40
Just what they need. Yet more US interference.
10
These people are not seeking safe haven. They are seeking economic opportunity. If they were seeking safe haven and feared life in Mexico they would head for Costa Rica. It's closer.
I'm all about economic opportunity, but we have a much greater responsibility to the descendants of American slavery then we do to these folks. I'm sorry, but every country needs to set priorities.
77
That's a lie, Observer of the Zeitgeist. Most of these people are fleeing violence. Your statement has been debunked all over the news this past week. Maybe you should read more.
2
What violence?
2
Without even citing Saint Paul, Spain’s King Philip II wrote in 1579 that “it would be good to order that Moorish children not be brought up with their parents.” Are we on the verge of a similar historical calamity? The antics at the Mexican border today recall those of the Habsburg kings, also given to deporting “bad hombres.” After the expulsion of its Jews in 1492, Spain would turn on its Moors, claiming their incapacity to integrate into Spanish society as loyal subjects. But how could they integrate when they were subject to brutal waves of racist rage? Council of State documents during Philip II’s reign mention castration, sterilization, drowning at sea, or shipping the Moors off to die in Terranova—the largely uninhabited Newfoundland. Influenced by his corrupt chief minister, Philip III agreed to a final solution: some 300,000 Moors endured a mass expulsion in a five-year cataclysm (1609-1614). Here began the decline and fall of Spain’s empire, the major world power in the sixteenth century. Might we be living through another “age of iron,” to use Don Quixote’s phrase? Will our age be remembered for the cruelty of its mass deportation agendas, for its inhumanity to mothers and children?
26
Amazing comment. Thank you for this.
This administration is so hateful and clueless. They should familiarize themselves with the word, "blowback." Some of these children, maybe the ones who are raped and molested, will become gang members that Donnie daycare is always raging about. This will come back to haunt the U.S. TRAGIC
25
The practice of systematically targeting families and separating children from their parents constitutes a crime against humanity as it subjects a specific group to cruel acts and psychological torture and violence. What have we become? How much will it it take for the supporters of Trump to realize what he has wrought? History clearly speaks to the practice of such violence and the lies that leaders will tell to justify it. Fortunately history also eventually brings justice.
27
It's cruel. Now I'm ashamed I never felt that bad that people arrested for crimes every day are taken away from their children. That shouldn't be allowed either.
9
Where is the 8th amendment in all of this- the one that defines 'cruel and unusual' punishment? Specifically, it states: that "cruel and unusual punishments [shall not be] inflicted." ... "A severe punishment that is clearly and totally rejected throughout society."
Lady Liberty is shedding some tears tonight.
27
"Except it all went wrong. The Border Patrol was waiting as they made their way from the border on May 26,..."
All went wrong? You mean an illegal action was met with law enforcement.
That should have been contemplated in their trek across Mexico. The government of Mexico knew the caravan of grief planned on crossing illegally into the US and did nothing to prevent them from doing so. I apologize if I am wrong about that.
The mother and child? A political football kicked over to the US by Mexico. That is the human rights violation that should be the center of focus - Mexico.
43
Yes but now that the child is on your side of the fence, what are you going to do about it? Nothing? Because it's not your fault?
@Dave: Doing nothing would mean letting them cross without any intervention. Not sure that's what you meant but that's what it means.
Clearly we have to do something and that something includes discouraging the actions that are taken by the immigrants and the Mexican government.
If people feel Mexico has no responsibility well we could follow their lead. We could be to provide these folks with a couple hundred dollars in loonies, transport them to the Canadian border and then let them go into Canada.
So what do we do? Any discussion about changing the immigration laws will need to include tougher enforcement with expedited deportations of those crossing illegally. Yes I know about the net immigration from Mexico being reported as zero but the number of unaccompanied children is subject to surges essentially allowed by Mexico.
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/usbp-sw-border-apprehensions
So here's the deal, we startup a guest worker program, continue DACA and have automatic return of people crossing illegally. Deal?
US officials and organizations are responsible for their actions. I understand people crossing into the US without a visa are breaking the law. But if US government organizations are separating children from their parents, they are responsible for making sure that the families can be reunited at some point (asap, in my opinion). The fact that people are breaking the law by entering without a visa does not remove the US responsibility for its governmental actions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
22
My observation, after reading and participating in comments made here today, is something more sinister than the policy of separating immigrant mothers and fathers and children.
Like any online activity, our comments can be found, sorted, analyzed.
To what end?
It only benefits the Trump administration to know how many believe his rhetoric, and how many don't.
It only benefits the Trump administration to know what lies have been put forth and believed, and what lies were not good enough to sell.
They knew that ripping children from mothers would be a polarizing action to take.
888 comments later, we have solver nothing, and those of us that have studied history, and can't be fooled, have spoken, and those of us that think they understand history, but in reality are spreading an emotional view that they were told and they believe, but is not real, have spoken.
I think the immigrants are not the only ones that have been exposed.
Time will tell, how this plays out for the 888 commenters.
6
It’s like they’re testing the waters. Seeing how far they can go. You would think this would be the line that they couldn’t cross in our society. You would think.
1
So, is your implication that people shouldn't comment here because the data may be mined? Or that somehow there will be negative consequences for the commenters? And, I assume that you yourself have already sorted opinions into two categories: those who like you "have studied history and can't be fooled" and people whose comments you interpret as emotional and uneducated? I'm just not sure where you are going with your comment. Please elucidate so that I may better understand.
Isn't this what we refer to as Kidnapping? Making America great again!!
10
And justice for all. Utmost cruelty, which will achieve nothing, since a lot of immigrants are driven by desperation. Except of course, that it is horrible PR for the USA, which still needs to attract skilled immigrants/residents, who can't all be Norwegian. This may give people cold feet, all the more so if they are black or brown and know that separating Black or Native American from their families used to be a common practice - slavery, Indian boarding schools, or, to this day, foster care. And wait till we get the inevitable child abuse scandal. I am deeply worried about these children's safety.
13
Once again the liberals demonstrate a complete lack of respect for our laws, and for our nations security.
Do not allow anyone into our country, and deport anyone - regardless of age, gender, national origin, sexual preference, hair color, or physical appearance - who did not obtain authorization to immigrate - prior to entering our country.
Problem solved.
We have a trillion dollar annual deficit, and a 21 trillion national debt. Only on the liberals’ fantasy planet does America have the resources to help more foreigners.
America First !!!
28
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.- Bertrand Zobrist
21
Per Wiki: “A zero-tolerance policy in schools is a strict enforcement of regulations and bans against undesirable behaviors or possession of items.”
If you believe in this, and I do (with very rare exceptions), than you should support it everywhere, starting with Russian influence and ending with immigration enforcement. Otherwise, you end up with nepotism and corruption, rampant in both parties. I think Republicans as well as Democrats are sitting on hot coals and are not credible at all. We need a new party. Or two.
3
Essence of incompetence on a grand scale's been revealed by the conflicting administration spin on the policy to pull families apart:
--Donald Trump's blaming Democrats for the policy, in between whining about fake news and seeming to waste his Father's Day with redundantly boring tweets.
--DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielson denies existence of policy that families are separated at the border. (It exists/They are.)
--Jeff Sessions/Stephen Miller proudly admit the policy. Sessions invoked bible. Miller invokes white nationalism.
--John Kelly announced the policy months ago.
12
It is a total mess. There are several levels of responsibility for it. The first level is the parents who make a decision to the illegal path to entering the United States. I realize that the woman may not be very knowledgeable about laws but it is, I am sorry to say, her responsibility to know them when undertaking something like this. The second level of responsibility is all those lawyers and organizations that encourage and facilitate the illegal entry. One cannot say for certain what their motivation is for encouraging and facilitating the illegal entry (some say it's political) but they are acting irresponsibly playing with people's lives. Only the third level is the level of the U.S. government. In this inhuman situation, it is trying to act humanely as much as possible without encouraging more people to come and enter the country illegally.
26
So we respond to ignorance of the law-- or desperation for a better life-- with abominable cruelty. The view from your moral high ground must be breathtaking.
44
To those who have no sympathy because these people broke the law and use their children to "win pity points": Having immigration laws and humane treatment of asylum applicants are not mutually exclusive. Human rights used to be what defined American values.
Michael Gerson, Washington Post, May 14: "The answer, of course, is that America, by definition, has a higher standard than legality. Our country’s most basic commitment — and its limiting principle — is universal human rights and dignity. This does not prevent the government from enforcing reasonable immigration laws. It does forbid the government from inhumanity in the enforcement of immigration laws. And there is no definition of inhumanity that does not include the intentional separation of parents from their children."
Kathleen Parker, Washington Post, June 15: "To insist that traumatizing children is the way to deal with the problem is a failure of imagination. To not anticipate the consequences of children being detained under a zero-tolerance policy that imprisons their parents is a failure of leadership."
31
Empathy is not about open borders so Dems can troll for Latino votes.